WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=ncGrQzQeuxE

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: ncGrQzQeuxE):
- 00:00:00: FCTV Advertisements: Megaet, K&K Partners, MV Bank
- 00:00:56: Call to Order, Pledge, Recognition of Falmouth Organizations
- 00:07:50: Announcements: Trash Bins, Blue/Green Conference, Town Report Intro
- 00:09:28: Town Report: Eversource Substation, Play Space Project
- 00:11:51: Town Report: Juneteenth Celebrations, Surf Drive Parking Lot
- 00:13:47: Public Comment: Dog Park Transition and Gratitude
- 00:17:05: Consent Agenda: License Renewals and Name Change
- 00:18:14: Operating, Capital, Debt Forecast Models Presentation: Introduction
- 00:19:19: Select Board Analysis: Budget Time, Data Needs
- 00:28:25: Town Manager Introduction and Forecast Overview
- 00:30:54: Laura's Presentation: Definitions, Assumptions, Methodology
- 00:34:09: Capital Improvement Projects, Bonding and Taxes
- 00:37:58: Operating Budget and Debt Forecasting Explained
- 00:41:50: Certified Free Cash and Budgeting Capital Improvements
- 00:43:47: Certified Free Cash and Emergency Fund Questions and Discussion
- 00:58:56: Detailed Look at Operating Budget and Projections
- 01:16:13: Revenue Estimations and Operating Projection Analysis
- 01:23:08: Existing and Potential Projected Debt Capacities
- 01:30:54: Historic Debt Review, Tax Calculations, Free Cash Discussion
- 01:42:53: Questions: Finance Committee, Future Meetings, Costs
- 01:51:57: Wastewater Improvement Funding and Capital Projection Review
- 01:58:56: Combined Operating, Debt, and Capital Improvement Projections
- 02:11:04: Estimated Tax Impacts, Select Board and Staff Strategies
- 02:15:17: Public Comment: Demographic Planning and Penny Spending
- 02:16:22: Actionable Strategies for Fiscal Stability: A Discussion
- 02:39:22: Proposed Policy Modifications: Fee Waiver Review
- 02:51:31: Meeting Minute Approvals, Select Board, Future Agendas, Reports


Part: 1

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Heat. Heat. Hosting services for fctv.org are provided by Megaet Communications. Megaet offers a wide array of internet services including Mega Backup Cloud Service, server colllocation, T1 fiber, Metro Ethernet, as well as telephone

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relationships and to create genuine connections that help companies grow. >> K and Ktelp partners. kktelp partners.com. At Martha's Vineyard Bank, we know Felmouth. With locations in Woods Hole,

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on Palmer Avenue, and the Village Green, we deliver personal banking tailored to your needs. Business solutions to help you grow. Flexible lending to move you forward and investment strategies that work for you. Whatever brings you in,

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we're your local partner. Martha's Vineyard Bank, your goals, our guidance. >> Bmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board Meetings on FCTV's newest

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series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at fctv.org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last Select Board meeting? Ask our host by visiting

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fctv.org/watchb. >> They can watch this from home. Okay, good evening. Now that Mr. Neto arrived, we can start the meeting. It is 6:30 and I'm going to call to order the town of FA Select Board meeting for Monday, April 27th, 20126.

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Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge 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

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justice for all. Thank you. At this point, I'll just uh remind everyone to silence your cell phone, notify the chair if you are making a video or audio recording of this open session meeting. The placement and operation of the recording equipment

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should not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Uh our first uh item is recognition and I would just like to uh to congratulate the uh the friends of the Falmouth Bikeway. They put on a wonderful

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celebration uh on Saturday. Many of us were there. Congressman Keading was there. Senator Fernandez, Rep. Oakley and uh and a lot of people and uh very and there will be another uh celebration at some point in uh in the month of May

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as well. So and um I uh and I think others here were able to spend some time on Saturday with the Falmouth Cultural Council. I know Mr. Richardson was there and I think Heather you came as well. uh they had their annual grant award uh

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discussion and uh doing a wonderful job uh a lot of very worthwhile uh grantees. So anyone else have any recognition? >> I would like to recognize Falmouth High School's Regal Seagulls. Their robotics team currently only in its second year

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going to Worlds in a couple of days. So they have been just killing it uh at every competition they go to. they keep getting uh the upandcomer newcomer uh awards and it's uh it's really fun to to see both the success they're having and

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uh the team spirit. >> Thank you. Uh as far as announcements, I just u I think everyone is probably aware or has seen that there will be a roll out of trash bins uh coming in May. U I was at the uh the SWAC uh

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presentation this afternoon at 4:00 at the Herman room. There's another one going on this evening at 7 and I believe there will be further uh forums going forward to let people know about the roll out. No pun intended. Uh and um

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there's also a lot of information on the website. So uh please consult the website if you have any questions. U certainly reach out to either Alan Robinson or Mary Ryther at the town. Anyone else for announcements?

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>> Sure. Um there's a great conference going on tomorrow and Wednesday at Falmouth High School um in the small gym, not actually interfering with school operations. Um I believe you can still register. It's called Big Blue and Green tomorrow and it's uh blue economy

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and uh climate and environment for for two days uh all the local folks involved. So >> okay, Mr. Reno, town report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few uh updates and reports. I wanted to let the board and the community know, we'll be posting this on the website as well,

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uh that the Commonwealth Energy Facility Sighting Board today released a notice and uh if you'll allow me, I'll read it real briefly. Um give an overview and then some important dates. Um, NStar Electric Company, uh, doing business as Eversource has requested that the energy facilities sighting board or the

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sighting board grant individual and comprehensive zoning exemptions from the town of Felmouth's zoning bylaw to replace the existing Falmouth tap switching station located at 228 and 280 Sam Turner Road in Felmouth with a new transmission and distribution substation. Uh, project description and

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map are uh, included in this notice and as I mentioned, I'll include the entire uh, bulletin notice on the website. Importantly, uh the sighting board will conduct a public comment hearing with both in-person and remote participation options on Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 6

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p.m. The in-person hearing location will be the Lawrence School Auditorium, uh 113 Lake View Avenue. Remote attendees um then there's a link to participate via a Zoom link um can also participate uh that way if they're not able to attend in person. And again, I'll post

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this uh uh Zoom link on the on the town's website. Importantly, Mr. chair, select board to provide oral comments during the public comment hearing either in person or in Zoom. Uh the uh sighting board is requesting that an email be sent to sighting board uh filing

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atmass.gov. Um there's a subject line. Um sighting board also invites written comments on the project. Written comments must be uh would be useful to the sighting board if submitted by Friday, May 29th. Persons or groups who wish to be involved in the sighting board proceeding beyond providing

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comments at the public comment hearing or in writing may seek an interview as a party or participant as a limited part or as a limited participant. And again, Mr. Chair, I'll post this on the website tomorrow so folks have direct access to that Zoom link. Also wanted to mention um and this is exciting uh with regards

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to a request for proposal that was just issued um earlier this month on April 15th. This is an RFP and legal notice for the all-inclusive multi-generational play space project as you recall off Palmer Avenue, Goodwill Park. Um the uh

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RFP closes on May 15th. So we're hoping we get uh some really great proposals for that project. Uh this afternoon, Peter uh the assistant town manager uh and I attended the um Junth uh planning celebration. Wanted to put out push out a couple of dates that are not too far

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off. Um on Saturday, May 16th, uh beginning at uh 7 PM um registration anyway, um we're having they're having the Opel Lee's 2 and a half mile walk. As some of you may know, this walk is inspired by Opal Lee, the grandmother of Junth, who walked two and a half miles

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in honor of the delayed emancipation of enslaved African-Americans in Texas. It took two and a half years, as I understand, for the notice of the uh emancipation to travel uh to get to Texas and for that full emancipation to occur. So, we're encouraging everybody to come out and uh walk that two and a half miles in recognition of Opal Lee uh

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2 and a half mile day. >> I'm sorry. Would you mind repeating the date? >> Yes. Saturday, May 16th. >> Um and there's a check-in beginning at 7 a.m. and the walk actually begins at 8. It's going to start here at uh it's going to start at Town Hall and uh go up Walker Street down to Surf Drive and

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then uh make that 2 and a half mile circuit back. Um it's going to be kind of a guided tour as I understand. There's going to be some folks that walk around and kind of walk along with the group and explain kind of give a a history lesson if you will of the of the event. Leash pets and strollers are welcome to join. And again, we'll be

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posting that information on the on the town's website. Also wanted to mention um Junth celebration. Uh last year's was my first and it was a great celebration if you all recur. Uh this year's Friday, June 19th from 1 to 4 p.m. at St. Barnabas Church, 91 Main Street. Um and we'll also post this notice on the

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website. And lastly, um, and this is exciting, and I think Peter McCanny, the DPW director is here. I want to thank Peter, um, and his staff, um, Lawrence Lynch, the contractor, and, uh, let's give credit where it's due. Uh, Eversource for their assistance on the Surf Drive parking lot. Um, if you

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haven't seen it already, I'd encourage you to go by, take a look. Uh, they finished up the striping and, uh, and all the other improvements associated with Surf Drive parking lot, and it's looking really great uh, on April 27th in advance of uh, beach season. So we're great really grateful and thank you Peter for all your work on that Mr. Chair that's all I have. Okay. Well,

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thank you very much. U moving on to public comment. I'll remind anyone is there public comment. If there is, so I'm going to mention public comment may be made on routine matters not on the agenda this evening. Comments are limited to two minutes. Please introduce

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yourself and since the matter has not been included on the agenda, the select board may not participate in the discussion of the topic. Miss Schneider. These are not for >> perfect. So, I'm here tonight as the

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last time you'll be seeing me come to speak about the dog park. But after 15 years of being at the helm, it is finally time for me to be able to hand this over to a younger generation and let them take charge. We have grown. I

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wanted to come tonight and say thank you to the town because you believed in the experiment of a dog park. There was only one in southeastern Massachusetts when we approached the town on this. One was in Province Town and you said, "Go for

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it." And we worked so hard to make this work. And we were exemplary enough that almost every town on the Cape now has one. And it is really, it does my heart good to see over 30,000 dogs coming to

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the park every year. But more importantly, it has been an exercise in finding out that humans really needed this place as a safe place to find a friend, a place to find a companion when they didn't have one during the pandemic, and a place for dogs to be

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able to really learn how to socialize and to also have people learn how to have a dog. So, I just wanted to thank the town. I wanted to show you that this will be hanging there, but this is all the places in town that have supported

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and helped the dog park over this last 15, actually 17 years if you include the two years it took us to add to build it. And I hope you'll read what we wrote I wrote on this letter. It's it kind of goes over. It was kind of interesting to

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go back and remember that on the day we opened May 1st, 2011, that was the day Obama announced that they we had been able to eliminate Bin Laden. That seems a very long time ago and that was the same time. So, please, thank you. Thank

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you again. Please do give Brooke Raymond and Scott Mcan your support as they take over. Yes, it's two people rep replacing me, but that's because they are both working people and I wasn't. So, I'm handing the keys over to Brooke tonight

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and that's it. Now, you're going to only hear from me on the Ospreys and the beaches and town meetings. >> Thank you, Barbara. >> Thank you, Barbara. >> Okay, excuse me. Moving on to the consent agenda. I'll turn this over to

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Mr. Reno. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh did uh was there a particular item on consent that uh you wanted to review? You just want me to read the uh the titles into the record and >> you you want to just Yeah. >> Okay. Just the title ones, please. >> All right, Mr. Chair. Uh first on the consent agenda under license is to

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consider a vote to approve applications to renew seasonal common victual license pending issuance of 2026 food service establishment permits and the following license renewing for the period of 51 2026 through 430 2027. And uh Mr.

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chairman. Um the uh second uh item under uh consent licenses is consider a vote to approve the application by Felmouth Beach Hotel Realy Trust LLC Beach Breeze Inn 321 Shore Street to renew its lodging house license pending approval

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of the 2026 certificate of inspection due to active construction. A request is also being made uh to change the license name from the Breach Beach Breeze Inn to Shore Haven Inn. Move approval of items one and two on the consent agenda. >> Okay.

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>> Second. >> So moved. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Moving on to uh the presentation discussion of the operating capital and debt forecast models. Uh I'd just like

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to say a few words. Uh you know, every member on the select board has heard Mr. Wrench's uh comments with respect to what we're looking at and we all know uh that we're facing some some some challenges going forward with respect to

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our operating capital budgets. Uh but I want to particularly thank Mr. Reid, member Reid, for what he has uh given us. His memo is part of our discussion uh this evening, and I want to personally thank him for kind of taking the lead on this and uh and bringing it

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to us. So, Mr. Reed, you have a few words for us. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, first, a big thank you for making this a priority, for fielding my memo, the requests for info, perhaps the repeated

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emails, uh, and sometimes my naive questions and uh, tax forecasts. Um, as the main culprit, I'll take responsibility for the challenging questions that we have to ask a group ahead. um because we have to we have a

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lot of work ahead. Um at the at the very premise it's can we afford this? Can our taxpayers afford this? Um I started doing some research and some more analysis of just my time on this board all very albeit very limited comparatively speaking to especially in

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my right here uh uh Mr. Brown. But we have u we need more time. We need to ask some hard questions about the data and we need to tackle some of these projects that past generations have passed on to us and now it's in our labs and the buck

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is kind of stopping here. Um this is not necessarily anything that we brought upon ourselves but now we are seeing with the good forecasting that town management has done that we have a real big math problem. Um I know I asked for 12 months of meetings and I know that

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that uh was not realistic but it's the northstar of where I think we need to get to as a group. Um we spend very little time on a very very very large budget but you know kind of tongue and cheek everyone else is asking for the stars and their capital requests why not

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you know limit ourselves here we need to ask for the stars. So in that just a little bit about the time um we don't spend a lot of directed concerted time on the budget um as a group we're given 15 days by the charter to personally

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review the budget and ask questions but after that we're given less than 120 minutes of meeting time to go over something that is extremely large in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We're given 15 minutes to talk about the

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policy for the year ahead. 20 minutes to and obviously we run over times, but I'm just talking about what's listed in the agendas. 20 minutes to receive the presentation, 15 minutes to discuss and consider a vote to transmit it to the finance committee and what does transmitting even mean and who defines

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that. 40 minutes to go over the operational budget requests and recommended for funding. That's later in the year. 20 minutes finally to review and discuss the budget recommendations. So 2020 120 minutes for $265 million. So

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I'm hoping that this um is the first of many to help us really get at some of the critical components here. So big kudos to the finance team and town management for putting this together. I think it's a great start. As Mr. Johnson stop notice

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we're facing substantial challenges and the call for a comprehensive analysis and dialogue are on point. Um I think the operating forecast in this um packet is really good. I think the debt forecast is good. The free cash capital improvement projects is good. The

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combined model is good. These are exactly what towns like Lexington, Massachusetts did not do. they did not fully operationalize this before making their final uh major decisions. Um you're also in this documentation

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explicitly showing the deficits and to u Mr. for Renshaw. We have been doing this. You have been doing this and I think that's critical for transparency. So, good job. Um, we started showing tax impacts. I think that is essential for public trust for us as a group moving

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forward. And you're acknowledging the uncertainty and the risk. Uh, I think it was page 12, right? There's a lot of things happening in the world that we can't control. And I think that's both honest and necessary. But what we're missing from my point of view is the tax

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burden rate on the median household and their ability to incur what we are asking andor forecasting. And I think that extends to the tax burden rate on the median household of our major employers and employment sectors. Um

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because can the town staff, can our emergency personnel, can our teachers, can our science and tech, can our healthcare, can our travel and tourism sector absorb these uh forecasted tax uh hits?

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I'm not sure. So we have to figure out a maximum taxable burden, the maximum override capacity over time and start linking the capital and operational impacts. Um, again, I in my memo, and sorry for the length of this, there's a

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lot here. Um, I pointed to Lexington, Massachusetts. They approved a $600 million school, and then they had to cut over 100 staff to meet the budget shortfall in the short term. I'm not saying we're heading in that direction, but their mistake was not building the school. It was their failure to align

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capital decisions, operating budgets, and a tax strategy. They got caught in between. and towns all around us are starting to feel the effects of the budget deficits caused by Prop 2 and a half and the limitations there and the

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in the and what's happening with uh um interest rates and inflation. So I think the most important shift that we need to make as a team is to move from what happens if we continue on this path to one that is we have to choose. Do we

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avoid tax increases and cut services the way Lexington did? Do we maintain services and raise revenue with tax overrides, economic growth, and raising fees? That's something we have to decide. Or we do a do we do a hybrid

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that moderates the overrides, slows down capital, and adds some efficiency. I think with the data that we've been given here at the very start, we're going to get to that eventually. I don't think we'll get there tonight, but success should be uh defined for us as

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an affordability framework again for our critical mass here. Um an agreement to potentially discuss and reclassify our capital improvement projects. Um making a commitment to integrate our operating

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and our our capital budgets and building a direction and a strategy for our override schedule. Um, I think we need a 20 or 30-year financial and tax model outlook. We need to see not only what impacts are going to be next year, but

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in the years ahead so that we can potentially impose constraints, budgetary constraints, you know, maybe force re prioritization, align capital, and be explicit about taxes because again, it's about being open, honest, and transparent. I in no

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means am a knowledgebased expert. Um, but I think together we can put our heads together and minds together to help Falmouth get through this really big challenge because we have an operating deficit. We've noted that and it's only going to get bigger. And then

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we have some serious and this is to Mr. Brown's point uh capital improvement projects on an annual basis and much longer. that's going to we have to do our homework to to really determine what is a must-have,

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what can be resized or not, what is a flexibility that we can do uh or what is something that we have to put off cuz there's a lot on our docket and I'm not sure that I am not confident with the data that we have been given so far and that we have collectively analyzed

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together that we have the data necessary to um go forth to our taxpayers and say, "Sorry, we're going to have to raise your taxes $1,000 over the year." I put this as a projection. It's not true yet.

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>> Um and those that's my concern. That outlines the memo that outlines here. That outlines the questions. And I and I'm really I want to end on a positive note. Thank you for taking this first step with us. >> Okay. >> And thank you for your work on this. Just a couple of things. As far as I can

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see, we are we we we we're not in an operating deficit at this point. Uh we balanced the budget. Thanks for the good work that uh that Mr. Renure and his team did. Um and um you know, I just want to mention and I appreciate you for for focusing on on this, but actually we

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need to thank Mr. Wrenchaw because he directed us to this problem uh eight or 10 months ago uh and got us realizing that while right now we're balanced, we're looking at some some options and some challenges going forward. And I

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don't think anyone has decided what that what that is, what options we're going to choose, whether we're going to have overrides or anything like that. Everything's on the table, but I certainly appreciate all that you did uh Mr. Reed to to focus it. So, I'm going

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to turn to uh Mr. Renshaw to uh give us an introduction. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair and Select Board Member Reid. Fantastic comments. Thank you. Thank you for those. Uh select board during my FY27 budget presentation uh to this board way back on December

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15th. I discussed with the board our 5-year operating budget forecast and the need to begin what I called at that point a series of very uh uh uh crucial conversations or meetings. uh meetings with both the select board and the community uh following April town

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meeting. Tonight's meeting is the first of those meetings. So it is the first step as select board member Reed mentioned. Tonight the finance director will be uh presenting very detailed deep dive into the forecasting information on the operating budget forecast and the

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debt funded and free cash funded capital projects and the tax implications of those. um she's going to take the uh first perhaps uh twothirds of the of the presentation going into those. We'll start with some basic definitions and discuss some assumptions and methodology work that she prepared. As you all

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recall back in that meeting on December 15th, the very last slide I presented that 5-year forecast where it showed those uh those deficits um and they were substantial. Um in hindsight uh I wish that I had provided some additional context. Um it caused uh

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quite quite the quite the fallouts uh and rightfully so. They were significant numbers. Uh but without context, I think it was a bit uh I did a bit of a disservice. Uh in the in the months since, Laura and Peter and the finance office staff have done a great job I feel in preparing some of the details

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and we're going to dive into those tonight. Again, I want to thank select board member uh Reed for his vision um and the work that he performed when he submitted his March 31st memo um concerning the budget review and approval and his

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outline to achieve uh fiscal stability. Again, thank you very much for the work you put into that. Although there were some I feel some methodology errors in the uh in appendix 4 concerning tax implication calculations, it really does form a strong foundation for tonight's

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discussion and will be the kind of cornerstone of future presentations and meetings that we have not only with the select board with but with the entire community. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Laura to go through the first eight or nine slides. Uh again, she's going to go over start with some basic definitions, talk about

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assumptions and methodology, um and then go into some of the uh the the the uh deep analysis of the of the financial forecast. Laura, >> okay, so as Mike just said, we're going to talk about basic definitions and go through the first four items, which is

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to review the operating budget in detail, the forecast in detail, the cash funded CIP in detail, and then we're going to just look at the combined one, the forecast that combines all three, but we'll be sort of flipping

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back and forth between so I can show you when I make some changes in some of the assumptions how that impacts everything. So for definitions basically a forecast is a projection using assumptions. It's not a it's not a

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sure thing. It is using assumptions and the best available knowledge that we have at given time and any historical information that's available that's relevant to the particular items. So I want to make that very clear

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because this is as of a point in time. I can tell you that already information has come in related to fiscal year 27 capital budget that the departments are starting to prepare together that has

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already happened. There is now. >> Okay. An operating budget is the annual cost of providing services and other fixed costs that we have every year including including any principal debt repayment

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and related interest expense for debt debt that has been authorized and issued in Falmouth. The annual operating budget is approved by town meeting in April and it includes everything but capital projects expense.

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Um, it's funded from recurring revenues. And what we mean by that is your taxes, your local receipts, state aid, and then occasionally other available funds. Capital projects is a long-term investment of $25,000 or more that

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creates or improves physical assets such as buildings, infrastructure, vehicles, equipment. It's funded from nonrecurring revenues and for us that's certified free cash, sometimes reappropriations from projects that were finished and and

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um we didn't need all the money that was there, grants and debt. In Falmouth, we have a 10-year capital improvement plan, a rolling 10-year capital improvement plan, and that's a comprehensive list of

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planned capital improvements or needs funded from cash and borrowing. And then the one-year capital budget that is presented to town meeting in October or November every year is for

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one year. And that's approved as I said by town meeting and authorizes the spending for those particular projects. Okay. Debt. Well, for governments, for the

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most part, debt comes from issuing bonds and it's borrowing money that has to be repaid along with interest expense um for most issuances. over the life of the bond. So, if we

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issue bonds for a 30-year project, we have to pay the principal every year and the interest every year. And all debt, whether it's exempt, non-exempt, short-term, all debt needs to be repaid. I know that seems obvious, but it's not

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always obvious to people, which is why I'm stating it. Exempt debt means that the cost of the annual debt service, the principal and interest can can may be added to the tax rate outside the limits of proposition 2

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and a half and it has to be authorized by twothirds vote at town meeting and by general ballot in an election. Non-exempt debt means that the principal and interest is can

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only be repaid within the limits of Proposition two and a half. So that two and a half% um increase to the base that we do pretty much every year would have to cover that debt service. There's a separate line for

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um debt that's been approved for override essentially that um is added below proposition below the line for base taxes and that's that can exist for the life of the bond that

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it's covering and it's for the debt service only for the amount of annual debt service in a given year for that particular bond. Okay. And as I said, annual debt service

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has to be raised and appropriated each year. Once the debt is issued, that goes into the operating budget as an appropriation. And um exempt debt may be able to be done outside of Proposition 2 and a

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half. Okay. Sorry, just went back. All right. An operating override allows for an approved amount of revenues to be raised outside of Proposition 2 and a half for operating

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expenses. It's a permanent tax increase. That means it rolls over into the base tax levy in the next year. And every year going forward, you have that increase in your levy. Has to be approved by town meeting and approved by

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voters at the um ballot. A debt exclusion is the annual debt service on the bond to be paid from property tax revenues above the le levy limit for the life of the bond. That means that you put the money into

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your budget as an expense in your debt service expense lines and you can also add it after proposition 2 and a half cuts off on your tax levy has to be um those those amounts are

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sent to the state every year and they have to approve that that that was what happened or that those are allowed. All right. So this is just briefly how we came up with the operating budget forecast methodology.

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So we took the current budget which in this case the most recent approved current budget is for fiscal year 2027 beginning on July 1st 2026 and running through June 30th 2027.

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Town meeting just approved that in April. We grouped it into broad categories of similar type items and some examples are there. Wages and salaries, operating expenses that historically increase about the same amount each year. Um benefits and

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there's a handful of other lines as well, which you'll see when we get into the budget, the forecast. Then we added a percentage increase factor or an inflation factor to each category based on um what we know from

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the last few years of history, general knowledge and economic factors. For revenues, we used the broad revenue categories that are in the budget that town meeting adopts every year. Those

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are taxes, local receipts, state aid, and other available funds, which are mostly receipts reserved for appropriation. Once you get that, you got total revenues minus total expenditures gives you your surplus or deficit in a given

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year. The forecast that I'm going to show you allows for inflation factors to change by category. It also allows us to plug in any kind of operating override and what the impact of those things are

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on the on the total numbers in the um forecast. So I'm going to show you going to talk briefly about the debt and um free cash funded CIP forecast as well. So

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free cash, we took the the CIP that was handed out to town meeting in 2025, November 2025. We took every item in there that we knew was going to have to be funded with

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debt. That doesn't mean these projects have been approved, but it does mean it's in our 10-year CIP. And we took those items and we calculated the debt. We I have um any type of bond issue. We have a we

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have actually spreadsheet uh a large ugly spreadsheet that calculates what the debt service will be with various assumptions. And we did that for every one of those projects. And that's how we

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came up with the debt projections. Um the free cash the certifunded CIP basically did the same thing. Took the 2025 CIP. We already pulled out everything for the debt. So whatever was

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left primarily is going to have to be funded through certified free cash. Certified free cash is means that um do the department of revenue has essentially approved that as

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our certified free cash. They've certified it and it is available for appropriation in Falmouth. Most of our capital is funded through the use of certified free cash. We budget to make sure that there

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is certified free cash because we do our budget for capital differently than we do our at a different time frame than we do our budget for operations. So we in November we need to know what

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that certified free cash is and we will generally have that number by the end of September in a given year. Okay, this is just a graph of what we're going to see on the debt forecast. Now, you can see that the blue is the current

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debt. Pink is debt that has been approved. That means by town meeting and or the voters if if applicable, but we have not issued it yet. and the green is the projects and the

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projected debt service related to those projects that we pulled out of the 10-year CA CIP. And then the next graph shows you the free cash funded capital that was in the 2025

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20 well yeah in November 2025 the CIP. So you can see that we had if we if we we'll talk a little bit later about a potential free cash policy, but we're

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assuming that 15 million assuming we get 15 million, assuming we get 20 million of certified free cash, we would set the ceiling for the use of free cash in the 10 years in the capital project

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um budget. at a level of 15 million. So the black line or the blue line is everything over that. The pink line is the 15 million ceiling that we're looking at right now. And I will tell you that's a little

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aggressive, but um as I said, we'll have to make sure that we can um come up with a policy that makes sense. Can we ask questions now or afterwards? >> Absolutely, you can. And I'm I'm

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actually gonna I'm gonna have to get out of this for a minute and close it down. So, >> I just have one and then Mr. Reed, when when you say that it's aggressive, I assume you mean the 15 million uh annually for free cash as being what's

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aggressive, >> right? So, we would recommend uh we're going to recommend that um whatever the certified free cash number is that 5 million of it be held and used for any emergencies or or

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situations that come up at the April town meeting. >> Snow removal. >> Snow removal is a great example. um >> too soon. >> Or even if you don't have an emergency, it could just be put into one of the stabilization funds or just held as free

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cash and it would roll essentially over to the next year's free cash. Um, but in order to do in order to get to a $15 million ceiling for free cash

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in your CIP, you've got to come in with $20 million of certified free cash each year. Now, we've been able to do that the last couple of years, but prior to that, um, we did not reach those levels.

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So, if certified precash comes in at $17 million, then we would say we really should hold the amount that we're funding in um capital to $12 million. So, we have that $5 million

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in reserve for emergencies that come up during the course of the year. >> Okay, Mr. Reed, >> I think you just touched on it a little bit, but what's the volatility of the free cash? Well, so free cash there there's there's quite a few factors that

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go into that calculation, but for the most part, most free cash comes from revenues coming in higher than what than were budgeted and expenditures coming in lower than we're budgeted. And so

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we budget local receipts, we prefer to budget at about 80% of prior year actuals. Um, so because we know we need free cash to fund our capital. That's that's the reason that Falmouth does that.

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>> So if I can just piggyback one more on this one. Um, we're lucky that we have this free cash. We're lucky the last few years we've got so much in our it seems to be the basis of our annual capital improvements and emergencies, right? So

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by definition extra revenues coming in and lower expenditures yet the deficit is driven by the inverse of that. So I'm wondering what happens if free cash drops. >> Well

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then you have to make um you have to make decisions about what your priorities are and what you can fund. That's really what it comes down to. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Brown. And then Miss Goldstone.

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>> So, when we're looking at this graph, the one you just had up a minute ago, we're talking about just maintaining the debt service. But when we talk about this uh 2030 time frame up to 40 million, that's if we did

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all the capital projects in our portfolio. Correct. >> That's correct. So we need to whittle that down so we don't ever get near that 40 million. >> Right. And I mean the forecast is built to have a little bit of flexibility so that because as I said I mean

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particularly with capital that stuff changes almost on a daily basis those needs emergencies hap things happen. Um the storm obviously created some issues that we're going to have to

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deal with that will that will involve capital. So I mean those things weren't in the 2025 budget. This stuff changes on a as I said on almost a daily basis. So you can't maintain this stuff on a

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daily basis. But you if you have a plan and you know what you need to do within that plan, you can absorb some of those emergency situations or or be a little bit more flexible because you know what you have

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to do to get to the point where you can fund that other stuff. >> Could I just Mr. Chair, could I make one comment on that? So, it's been my experience and and it is about choices and with the 10ear CIP um those outlier years um are are always difficult. As

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Laura says, needs change. Um and by outlier years, it's been my experience uh years 7 through 10. >> Um it's always been my practice to to attempt um the first three years of a CIP uh to lock in and identify those

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those needs that it's a plan for a reason. Um and and you know obviously we can depart from that plan but um a 10-year CIP there are a lot of circumstances that change outlier years 7 years 7 through 10 of a 10-year plan um are difficult uh and and and you

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might see some movement but years 1 through three in a 10-year plan in my opinion um we have to be prepared to make those difficult choices up front and lock in um to those to those choices especially with regards to some of the some of the larger more substantial uh capital projects that we're we're looking at. Um, that's not to say in

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part of this discussion and subsequent discussions going forward for the next several months um are are going to be just that, looking at at the 10-year plan, identifying those things that we think we can push and defer. Um, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but always be careful and cautious about

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deferring. Um, because that cost does tend to escalate. Um, we see that in just one category of the capital plan, the building facility maintenance needs. I think for 20 years we've deferred a lot of that maintenance and uh and now we're we're seeing the result of that. So we have just have to be cognizant of that. But it is going to be about very

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difficult to choice choices and and collaboration with the board and the community talking about what's the priority of of this community and this board as as policy makers. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> I have a a question kind of related to Mr. Brown. I just want to ensure that my

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understanding is the same as as others. So, we've got these two slides here that both have these similar numbers of 14 and 15 million caps, but the um keeping debt service below 14 million. Um that

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is primarily um debt exclusion uh tax-based paying debt service. that is different from 15 million in free cash which is going toward the capital improvement plan which is largely not

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debt exclusion debt service. Right? So they're both in the 145 million range that we're trying to cap but they're two very different things. >> Okay. So we'll talk about the debt cap in a minute. Um but you're right they are two very different things.

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Just one one one question and u so the comment has been made about uh having two separate meetings uh April and and November uh am I correct that because certified free cash comes in September

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that that does that lead to the reason why we're dealing with our capital budget in November historically? I I don't know the history of when of when that changed from doing the capital at a separate meeting from the

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operating. Um I would offer two comments. One, you know, could we do it at the same town meeting? Is that is that possible? Is it feasible? Yes, most communities do it that way. I will say most communities that have a town meeting form of government are a lot

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smaller than Falmouth. So I I do think it just procedurally it's it would be a pretty substantial sort of change to the way we do business. We'd have a little bit of a blackout period where we just need to focus on finance because the you know

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the management staff is going to be working on the operating budget and the capital budget meeting with the finance committee for five months. Um so I I I just I wanted to offer both of those things that you know it certainly could be done. you could combine them. It

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would be a significant change for us and how we operate. >> If I could just comment on that. >> Yeah, sure. >> I know I've been I've been bugging you guys for quite a long time. I I really think we should have a meeting that talks about the operating and how it relates to the capital because there

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were they go hand in hand. I really think that we need to find ways to reduce the capital whether it's divestment of property or some other innovative ideas because that'll have a direct effect on the operating budget. So I I don't see how we can operate and

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not consider them both at the same time even if it's two different town meetings. >> Okay, back to you Laura. >> Can I ask one more operating? >> Oh yeah, sure. >> Sorry. Um I guess at the intersection of operating and capital is debt service. So just going back to your one slide

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regarding the operating forecast model. Um and maybe this is a parking lot question for later on in the presentation, but have you been able to in your analysis look at um we're going

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to get to a slide that has five external pressures on our budgets. Um but assuming that an operating budget is 80 to 90% immovable it's it's personnel related right we don't have much say in

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it as a board but do you have a feeling or do you have a thought have you an analysis of what the root causes are of the deficit of the overspend it can't just be >> sure >> like tariffs

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>> it is it is a simple mathematical equation. You're restricted to 2 and a.5% increase in your revenues, in your tax revenues. You're restricted um in your local receipts by where you

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think they're going to come in in historical performance and they only increase probably by about 2% a year for the most part. Um other available funds pretty much stay flat, so you won't see any real

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increase in that. and state aid mostly for schools comes in probably at maybe 2% higher. >> So, >> so when you put that together and you look at your expenses, I mean, we have maybe a couple line

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items where we could say yes, it's only going to increase by 1 to 2%. But most expenses in your budget, particularly your really large ones, your salaries, your um any personnel cost, your health

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insurance, your retirement, um certain other expenses increase significantly more than 2% or 2.5% per year. >> It's been a huge So, >> it's been a huge driver and and starting So, I was hired, as you'all know, in in

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in June of 2023. Uh so the FY25 budget was the first one that uh Peter and I worked on presented to the board. One one of the major policy uh uh decisions that were made we had tremendous number of vacancies and I'll just pick on one department the police department had

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significant number of vacancies. We made a conscious decision in FY beginning in FY25 uh with that contract period to address uh the patrol federation sergeants and lieutenants in the police department. The result of that um was a decrease in the number of vacancies. Um

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Chief Lori reported, you know, last year that for the first time in in over a decade, he was full strength. Um so the the the the wages, the personal personnel personal costs um are a huge driver of this. But that's not to say that the slight board doesn't have a a

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decision on that because it does obviously that's a policy decision. Do we want to be When I came here in June of 23, um we were we were in the middle of the pack, lower middle in terms of um competitiveness, in terms of wages with

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the police department. Um I think we're in the top third now. um you know it varies from year to year because what we do the next year somebody else >> um but wages are are in my opinion when you look at where we're currently at um uh FY27 operating budget compared to

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where we were perhaps in FY24 um a big reason for that increase year-to-year has been in in in contracts that we negotiated particularly with public safety and as you all know we're currently um uh working and negotiating with the fire

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for that for that large contract. So that drives a lot of this. >> So I appreciate I think that's getting at the root cause which is are you seeing any projects I don't you don't want to go department by department but any I I guess in future meetings it'll

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be what are we seeing as outliers that are percentage growth really big bumps? You know someone moving from 15,000 to 30,000 is 100%. So you're not that's immaterial right? But if you're seeing any budget items that really have big

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spikes that might be causing this deficit to grow, I mean, it'd be interesting to see this later on in an analysis. Maybe we don't have it now, but um there's got to be some root causes beyond just inflationary costs.

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>> If I could mind if I >> I was just going to say I don't think that's true. I mean, inflation's at 5.8 and we're only getting 2.5. We don't we're going backwards every year. Yeah. >> I I just want to point out um you know folks watching at home or anywhere else

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that uh this has been a record number of towns in Massachusetts requesting a Prop 2 and a half override this year. And I think this is serious discussion that maybe we call in our state legislators because I think the state needs to look at how they do uh local aid because every almost every single town on the

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Southshore is having financial troubles. Um kind of going to we're looking at how is this possible with the number of rising costs. I think that this is this is part of this is a problem with there's a lot of mandates on Beacon Hill and not a lot of money is coming with it. So, I think that's part of it. Um, and then just while I'm talking, I'll

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just get my piece in because I don't have too much to add here. I think it's always important to look at other revenues. Um, and that's why I was really glad the enterprise kind of picked up on our starting the discussion on retail cannabis again. And, you know, I think we should look at taxes like that and other taxes that we're not capitalizing on that other towns are um

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that do not hurt our local year-round population. Okay, Laura, back to you. >> Okay, >> so I'm jumping into um the operating budget projection. Can you see the

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numbers on the screen or do I need to You cannot. No. All right. All right. I'm going to make it bigger. All right. So, um, as I said,

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um, we have we we took the current year budget and we broke it down into different category groups. Okay. And 2026 is just in there or um,

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>> we don't have this one in the packet, but >> you do >> page 33. 33. Yeah. >> I'm sorry. I don't have the page numbers because I'm using Excel. >> You got it. >> Y. >> Okay.

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>> All right. So, you'll see there are some groups here. So, we um most we've managed to do this all in about 34 lines. Um but one of the things about government is other than a few

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other than a handful of categories most expenditures are we can figure out pretty well are going to remain flat or only increase by a couple of percent maybe two to 3%. Um,

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some of that is because they can't increase any more than that because we don't have the money to fund it. And some of it just is that I mean office supplies unless you've got something going on in your office, it's pretty stable from year to year in most of the

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departments. Yes, there's a, you know, there are increases in prices, but not to the extent that they're going to impact any kind of forecast. So it doesn't need to be really granular to figure out what your operating forecast

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looks like is is the point. So we do know we computer equipment we have an inflation factor in there of um I'm trying to get the page over >> 1.1 right?

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>> Yeah 10%. Right. 10%. And that's how you would read that inflation factor. The one's only in there. So that the formula works easily. Um dredging. So employee benefits,

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we know that computer equipment security software maintenance, they usually increase by 10% or more each year. That's expensive. It's expensive and pretty much necessary, unfortunately. um dredging, chemicals, sludge, waste

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disposal, they increase by more than 3%. Most operating expenses do not. So when you have when you look at your categories, you'll see one big operating expense that's in there at 3 and a half%.

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>> I believe 3%. >> What? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I do. All right. And then you have other things like um health insurance is separate because it's it it increases by around 8% each

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year or has the last couple years. We're lucky it's been that low. Um salaries and wages is in at three and a half%. school department is in at three and a half% which um that's it's conservative but not not

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conservative in the right way. Um we have retirement in at 8% because that's what our current schedule um fee schedule is that we've gotten from

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the Felmouth Retirement Board. and that will get us fully funded apparently by 2034. So that is an issue we're going to talk about a little bit and it is one of the

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recommendations we're going to make because first of all the state law says that it has to be fully funded by 2040 but PIR the group that does all of the retirement actuarial valuations said no in order to reach full funding

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by 2040 you need to be fully funded by 2035. We don't really care what the state law date is. So everybody's schedule has been sort of tailored to reach that.

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Now I'm not I would argue that what the state law says should say is that you you should be 80% funded by 2040.

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And that should be the target for funding long-term pension plans because pension plans are designed to last for 50 70 75 100 years or longer. Laura, can I interrupt? Mr. Chair, so to

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put things in perspective and I I think people in the audience at home can see this when you're looking at those at the major categories, retirement is the line obviously you're referring to now, Laura, right? I'ming FY27 that's 13.7 almost 13.8 million

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>> of the operating budget that's driven by this state law or PIR act right public employee retirement administrating commission that we think we there's some room for for some some discussions petition and we're going to talk about that later tonight. Um that's

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a huge number. Um and and as you look it just continues to get larger and larger right based upon those and what assumptions go into that into that other than the 8% customary or required contribution right 8% per year is what we're required to contribute.

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>> That's right right now. Mhm. So if we drop this and you can I'm not going to do it right now. I'm not going to demonstrate it because it's hard to but if we drop that to 1.05 5 that factor. So a 5% increase each

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year. You would you you don't eliminate the amount that's due, but it pushes it out and you would change fiscal year 28 to 35 forecast. It would

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defer $20 million just on that one line alone if you were able to drop your retirement contribution to 5%. Now, I don't know if that's realistic or not, but um it is certainly something worth considering. >> It extends the date that we're fully

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funding. >> It would extend the date. I don't know to when because we don't have an actual >> currently currently we're under schedule to fully fund by 2034. >> Right now, we are >> by law that number is 2040. So there's

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some there's an opportunity um to to to look at at at trying to to to to move that number because it's a huge it's a huge >> Did I understand that right? We're now budgeting to be totally funded by 2034 but the state would allow it to go to 2040. Is that right? >> Yes. But PIR act will not and they do

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all the actuarial valuations and set the schedules for all of the retirement systems. >> Okay. Couple of couple of other questions while we're on this part of the spreadsheet. Um smaller numbers, but

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electricity um I know it continues to go up uh fairly minimally, but with the number of solar projects that we have coming online is is that reduction in demand for town buildings built into this forecast or not?

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>> Yes. Well, certainly the ones that have come online already, not the ones that we that have just been approved. There have been some that have just come through, but we don't have that built in at this point. No. >> Okay. Excellent.

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>> And this is based this is based on known expenditures as of the 2027 approved budget. >> Yeah. No, I'm just trying to make sure I understand the the assumptions. Um and then the uh dredging line a couple pages on

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there's a capital bulkheads and dredging 9.04 million. >> What is the or that's >> they're they're not redundant which is the obvious question right? So we have smaller dred annual type dredging

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projects and then we have some really large ones that will need to be um debt funded. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. So, um, just as an example, so right now

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you see we have a deficit programmed for 2028 of $1.4 million at the bottom, right? The 1.4 million. Mhm. >> So if we take that and let's just say we assume that we're going to reduce

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expenditures by that amount in 2028, right? So I do this one. So that's that's a permanent reduction.

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So it carries out in every year. And so then you eliminate that there. It reduces the amount of your deficit in 2029. And I'm pointing this out. So if I put this in as an operating override in

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2029, right? 2427 50. So the tax implication that you see at the bottom here, the tax impact, the 10 cents per thousand or $10263

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um for average assessed valuation >> and and what number are we using for that average or >> um I believe the number is that's actually on your slide. >> Yeah, somewhere here >> it's 1 million. the state determines that

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it's 1 million 1,ion26,000. So, one thing I think it's going to be really important, I know we don't have it tonight, but I think it's going to be really important to see is what an override, an operating override in 28

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paired with um a 10% residential tax exemption could look like. um where we instead of having that residential tax exemption be revenue neutral, we actually pair that with um an override

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um and tax rate increase of of some sort, which would obviously shift that break even point, but offers us the opportunity to increase town revenues um while still providing constant or reduced tax burden for most of our

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residents. Right. >> Peter's actually been we had that discussion this morning and he's working on on and we're hopeful to be able to show that perhaps the next time we we meet. >> Laura, just a quick question. Um

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and correct me if I misheard this, but if we um let's just say find some efficiencies in the budget in 2028 and not go to an override. So the 1,428 uh,169

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number, if we were to find budget efficiencies without making cuts or an override, would that have a positive impact on the outy years? Yes. >> Okay. And then Cool. That's great to

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hear. I wasn't following you on the 2,427250 number that you threw in for 2029. Where did that number come from? Because I I appreciate what it means >> between the two. >> It is the difference between the two >> project. Let me take it back.

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>> Take 2029 and subtract 2020. >> I had just missed that piece. And but but the the the point is noted that a change there has a compounding effect in the outyear. So anything we do in the first two years is huge. To Mr.

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Renshaw's point earlier both regarding the capital budget but our operating budget >> works for both revenues and expenses. Huge, right? Absolutely. >> Okay. All right. And I'm just going to show you that um for instance that 1 million4

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carried over onto the combined projection forecast which we're really going to look at last but most of these numbers carry over from the other forecasts obviously. So you'll see that it has an impact. >> Laura, if I might. So we we can't see

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those numbers. So maybe tell them what tab they're on so that they can flip to it but also increase the the zoom. >> Yeah. Okay. Sorry, it went back down. Okay.

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So, I'm on It says it's called >> It's not the operating, it's not the >> operating debt and cash funded CIP projections. >> That's right. I think it might have saved as the next page actually on the >> PDF.

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>> It is the next page in the packet. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, what this does is it it it it brings over those changes. All right. So the 1 million4 came over from the operating

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projection and you can see on the bottom for instance that I have this original with no changes. So here it says if we hadn't made that change the total deficit would

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have been 1.6 million but now it's 1 point it's 182,000. Are you following me? So the 182,000 is here where it says remaining surplus deficit. We'll go over this sheet more in detail

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in in a bit, but I just want to show you how the how the forecasts interact really. Um I'm going to take that number back out here because I don't want to mess up the other forecast, but um you'll see.

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Are there any more questions on how the operating we'll go down to the revenues now? All right. And I also want to point out that on this operating forecast, >> you'll remember that it's only a it's

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only authorized and issued debt. So any debt that has been authorized and not issued or any debt that's projected is not included on this page. This is only authorized debt that has been issued.

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So when you look at the line existing and authorized long-term debt, you'll see it's decreasing over the years. That's because it doesn't include any possible new debt coming on. And just to confirm the operating override permanent

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tax increase. >> That's right. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's right. Any more questions on the operating budget projection before I shift over to debt?

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I have lots more questions, but I imagine we're going to break it down more in these future meetings. So I I have like I said those capital implications. So I guess at a future meeting we're going to address those. >> I think we're moving into capital. >> No, that's we're going to do that now.

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>> She's going to show combined. >> Okay. All right. So now we're going to turn to the debt projections which should be your third the page.

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Are we going to go back to revenue? >> I'm sorry. >> Are we going to go back to >> Oh, yes. You would like to do revenue. Okay. >> My mic went off.

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>> No, that's okay. So, this shows you your revenue. It shows you um the 2 and 12% proposition 2 and a half% maximum amount that can be increased. If we put an override in, it'll

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automatically flow into the next. It also includes the debt exclusions that have already been approved that are still outstanding from debt that has been existing and issued for quite a while.

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Um, and it also shows you that we have estimates in there of a 2% increase in both local and

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um, local receipts and in state aid. We have no increase program for other available funds because as I said, we don't we don't know what that's going to be. That tends to be flat. We um

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and the tax is by law what what's allowed by law with a conservative estimate of new growth, the same one we've used for I don't know how many years of 900,000 >> built into the forecast. I'm glad you pointed that out because I'm guessing that's a question we should be asking

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ourselves, which is um what economic or zoning changes could help increase this new growth um potential? because if we've just been putting in a placeholder with no data to back it up, um perhaps we can put something in there like an

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economic vision or some other things. Cuz right now, I think you're pointing out very succinctly, our uh expenses are raising are rising at a rate of almost 5% and our revenues are only 2%. Can new

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growth help bridge that gap? It can, but it's it's it's um it jumps around a lot. >> So, >> what does >> it depends on when

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the how how far along the projects are, when they can be evaluated to be added to the role, and at what value. So, how many projects are out there? What types of projects?

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>> Mr. Chair, if I could chime in on that as well. Sorry. Go ahead and finish your thought. >> No. >> Um, so I just wanted to say and you know, so 30 years working for four towns and going to many conferences. Um, the the takeaway is it's very hard to move

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the needle on new growth through policy. Um, as as Laura was indicating, there are economic factors that we don't control um that spur housing construction and development um or shrink it. Um,

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you know, potentially if you make big zoning changes, you know, you could drive some new growth for a couple of years. Um, I don't I don't pretend to know how the uh seasonal communities zoning change might impact things, but also it gets complicated because if your

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zoning change creates a lot of residential housing, how does that affect the expense side of the equation? And is it a net positive or a net negative? Um, I know in communities where most of the housing is occupied by school-aged children, it's generally a

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new housing construction looks great in the first year where you get your new growth, but it tends to be a re a ne negative because the cost outweighs the revenue. Um, so all of which is just to say yes, a big zoning change could

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affect new growth, but it's generally very difficult to move the needle on that. What about >> and I suppose a recession could uh could really reduce the new growth number. Is that correct, Peter? >> Absolutely. >> What about uh business development and

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economic development? Because as the board chair and I serve on EDIC or used to serve on the EDIC, I think there's a role for what economic development could be in this town beyond tech park and solar parks and housing. Yeah, actually

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I've been speaking kind of offline with both uh Mike Sparian and Wayne about having that discussion. I know you've been part of that and I think it's a definite thing we need to start looking at uh for future revenue possibilities. >> That's one of the is in previous uh

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communities that I've managed focusing on uh putting a greater burden of the greater percentage of the tax burden on commercial industrial development versus residential. um diversifying and having a a greater percentage of commercial industrial has been a focus. I know that's not been a focus here in

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Felmouth. Housing has been the focus, but I think that is a policy change worthy of discussion going forward. >> Um looking at industrial commercial development >> and Jack's marijuana businesses will be able to bridge that gap too. I think it's also important to note that

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if we're thinking about policy changes to try to stimulate new growth, even if they do work, >> the benefits of that would come some number of years down the line, >> right? Projects don't just >> they don't >> they don't happen by FY28 to fill a a budget deficit.

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>> One thing we could do though in the short term is maybe try to take advantage of the seasonal communities act. some of these smaller lots that the town may own that may be afford uh formerly were not buildable. We could devest ourselves, sell them to developers. There's things we can do. I

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think we can trim our budgets in all the little ways that might not seem impactful, but if we do a lot of them, just like your household budget, I think that'll it'll have an impact. The only thing I was going to add is, you know, anyway, and this is more more zoning than finance, but anyway, so we can have

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mixed use in areas that make sense and it's easy to connect to sewer. You know, the more mixed use the better in terms of residential but also new businesses that can come in. >> Back to you. >> Okay. Are are there any more questions on the operating budget projection at

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this point? Okay, we're going to jump into debt. Can you see this? Okay. All right. The first part of this, I'm going to go through this pretty carefully because I think it's important.

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Um, the first part of this shows, let's let's ignore the first line for a minute. The total debt kept below 15 million. the current outstanding debt. We have

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the amortization schedules. We're paying that debt debt off. That debt has been issued and we know what those numbers are going out. We also have debt that has been authorized but not issued yet. And that includes

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for the Bourne Pond Bridge for 10.725 million um phase one of um the sewer project and for 50.374 million

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and the police station design which was just approved of non-exempt debt for 4.7 million. So we haven't needed to borrow that money yet. We will borrow it when it makes sense to borrow it both in terms of our needs and also in terms of

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what we can um get for interest rates in the market. >> But that's new debt. But we're also carrying significant existing debt. Right. >> Right. >> Which is the debt service. >> Those are those numbers right off the So current outstanding debt is what our

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existing debt that has been issued is. Then we have the debt that's been authorized that we haven't issued yet, but we we'll need to issue. We've started some of those projects. We certainly started the sewer project, >> right? But what I'm saying is we've got a lot more than this is the new debt

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that is coming on. >> We haven't gotten to the new debt yet. >> This is just we're we're trying to get to the whereion at the top >> that the debt that we have already obligated >> service but not the authorized to pay. That's the amount that we're paying

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toward the total debt. The total debt is over a 100, right? >> You guys just reminded me >> when I say debt, when I when I give you these numbers, this is the annual principal and interest expense related to those debt issuance. >> Right? That's the point I'm making.

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That's not how much we >> It is not total debt. Total debt um is a is a whole different story and a and a different measurement, right? But it does point something out. So when when you

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get on there's a there's a worksheet that you can use for a variety of there's a lot of worksheets on on the Division of Local Services, but it looks kind of like this. I know you can't really see

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it, but basically you can plug in what your annual increase is going to be for either an operating override or a debt authorization and find out what the tax impact is going to be based on the numbers that are certified in the

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department of revenue. arms right. You want to make sure annual debt is the only thing that we're allowed to put in there for any exist any potential debt. So for instance with

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the police station the projected debt of now 60 million you can't that 60 million does not belong in this worksheet at all. Okay. You can only put in the 6 million that will be your first year of

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outstanding principal and interest that you're going to repay to determine what the tax implications are going to be because you can only put an exempt debt above proposition two and a half for the amount of that that

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particular year's debt service related to that debt. >> All right. you talk about tax tax calculations and tax impact. That's where the number comes from. Um I don't remember what the

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specific well it's on here. So if you look at the police station, the 26 cents per thousand or 200 basically $26 a year that's related to the annual debt service

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and all debt has been projected in this forecast as level principal. There are two ways you can do debt. You can have a level payment each year or you can have a

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level principal where you're paying more in the your initial years and decreasing over time. And the reason that we did it with level principle and that we prefer to do it that way is because it's less interest that you're paying over the life of the bond.

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>> Are we dealing with 20 or 30 years? >> It can be either 20 or 30 years. >> But the numbers that we have here, >> the numbers that you have here is 20 years. on the um police station and then there are other numbers.

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It's 30 years on Lauren school for instance, but it has to be a number that makes sense. The the project um like you couldn't do 20 years for computer equipment because computer

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equipment doesn't last 20 years, doesn't have a 20-year life. So it has to be make sense in terms of the life of the project that you're building and also there are state reg has regulations around that too. So what

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you're allowed not allowed >> other words you can't cook the books. >> No you cannot ever nor do we want to. Um, sorry. I'm going to count at heart

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>> responsibility. All right, I'm going to back up now to the the first line. So, we went back and looked at the amount of our annual debt service. This is total debt service. This is not exempt versus

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non-exempt. This is total debt service that we have had. And if you go back to um 2000 I have it on here.

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No, I don't have it on here. I have it on my notes. Yeah. So, we've been limited to 15 and a.5 million or less over the last certainly 15 years because I went back to 2013 and it was 5 it was

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15.4 million in that year and it was 15.6 million in 2016 and it's actually been pretty much declining every year since. Um maybe because people wanted to keep

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the tax rates low. I don't know. But it certainly hasn't it's an artificial number, the 15 million, but it hasn't kept pace with inflation

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on the basis of cost of projects. I will certainly say that. So, it is something to think about when you're looking at debt as a whole. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Um, in terms of that number, is there a

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um a best practice target in terms of percentage of budget or is it a a purely I guess kind of logistical with what what else the town has on its plate, what we've felt could be

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afforded. >> Well, I think it's a combination of both. I mean there I believe our policies do include an annual debt service should not exceed maybe I don't know what it is 9% of of the total

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budget. Um but those are policies set by the select board and >> I guess I'm thinking bond rating um I don't know what other considerations there might be. bond bond rating agencies will certainly look at

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your policies and decide whether it makes sense. They'll look at your what you're doing and decide if it makes sense. But at the same time, I mean, if you're not doing any work, that's going to affect your bond rating also

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because they know that you're just putting off the inevitable. So there's there's a little bit of leeway in terms of what makes sense from the bond rating standpoint. So, so I mean I

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I think it's kind of evident that while we're not happy about tax increases and we're going to try and figure it out, uh it's actually a result of decisions that have been made for years by prior select boards and this select board for the

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past two years that I've been on it. Uh that have, you know, kept the taxes as they are. And so we've got to keep that in mind going forward. realize there may be some tax increases, but we've made some conscious decisions uh in a number

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of areas to keep the taxes uh as low as possible up to this point. So, just something we need to consider. Uh while we're at debt, is there we talked about the uh percentage of debt service. So, we'll define that later where we are, but something for us to

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think about as a board as we have future meetings is looking at a policy target. But do we have um I I know Doug brought up the outstanding debt total um that we have there, but do we have a debt ceiling?

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Um yes, usually it's a percentage of total assessed value and we're way below what that would be. Um I'd have to go to the you can find it in the annual audit. >> That's okay. There is

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All right. So, for purposes of this calculation, we said, "All right, we're going to keep debt at 15 million or below for purposes of this forecast because that's been the

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policy pretty much going forward. Um, so when you take what's current and outstanding, currently outstanding and authorized and you subtract it from the 15 million, the remaining debt drop off,

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I'm calling it here, is what's left for possible future debt outside of debt overrides. Okay. So, now we're going to take a look

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at the potential projected projects. >> So, I'm sorry. Does everybody understand that last point that Laura just made? >> That's the drop off. >> That's the ability to borrow. >> The ability to borrow that we have coming up, but now we have to compare it

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to our wish list, right? >> You have more ability to borrow. Well, I mean >> 15 million is an artificially is an artificial ceiling if you will >> and it's just based on the fact that

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historically for the last 15 years it's been at 15.5 million and actually dropping as you can see um going forward. >> If I may just interject to the last question is there a debt ceiling? It's I

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just looked it up. I didn't know this off the top of my head. It's 5% of equalized valuation, which is 1.1 billion. So, we're not in danger of getting anywhere near that. >> Cool. Thank you.

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>> Okay. >> So, the potential projects not in um the potential projects. So I split wastewater out um and show it in here but it's sep it's below the other projects. So you can see

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we have the East Falmouth library for 6 million. We have some of these have been assumptions but they went I took information that with the exception of one item everything was in the 10-year CIP.

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So, we had comprehensive building needs in there at $10 million a year for five years. So, we we said, "Okay, we're going to borrow 25 million in 28 and we're going to borrow another

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25 million a couple years later." And that's how we figured out what the debt related to that is. It has no real basis in fact because we don't actually know how that money is going to need to be spent in what increments over time.

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So, but for purposes of this, it was in the it was in the 10-year plan. So, that's how we put the money in. >> Laura, just have a quick comment. I'll keep this brief. Um, we Greg Endeott, as you all know, we a couple of years ago launched that uh that building uh inventory evaluation study. Greg

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Endicott, um, Peter McCanny and DPW are very close. They're working with the vendor now to finalize the capital planning module of the platform that's going to allow us to Laura's right. We don't have any way to kind of like slice and dice this number other than applying

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$10 million a year. It's going to allow us to um prioritize based upon policy set by the select board what we want to go after. Life safety considerations, um, use of the facility. Peter, you remember any of the other uh classifications? We're going to be able to really grant you in at a granular

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level go in and set parameters to allow us to kind of identify that number um and and have good confidence level that that would be the required amount of investment to maintain our our buildings each year. Right now, as Laura said, we've got $10 million programmed into

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the CIP for the next five years, >> right? And we split it into debt in two two bundles of 25 million. And that's a hugely arbitrary number right now. So we're hoping um based upon this module that we're going to and within the next several weeks um I'm being told. Um so hopefully by by during these series of

340
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presentations we're going to be able to come and give a presentation that's going to allow us to get that number uh much more concrete and specific. >> Okay. Then we have combined stations three and four for 15 million. Again that's not a number. It's a number we we

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took based on um we inflated what we paid for um Hatville and came up with the number that way. There's bulkheads and dredging large projects of about 9 million marine park

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phase 2 for 5 million coastal erosion for Manotan Grand of 13 million. Upper Cape Regional Tech 16.225 225 million. Now, this was not in our 10-year CIP, but we discovered through

343
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asking um actually members of our finance committee discovered through talking to um the upper cape technology people that they were accepted into the same um

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Massachusetts School Building Authority program that Felmouth was for warrants. And um when I I had a phone conversation with Roger Forgett and he seemed to think that the project

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was going to cost in the neighborhood of 100 to 150 million. And so I took a hundred million. They're going to they're potentially eligible for a reimbursement of let's say 50. I can't remember the exact percentage. I

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think it was No, that's Felmouth. That's Felmouth is eligible for that. Um, the school, the upper cape is eligible for a higher rate of reimbursement. I think it might have been 50%.

347
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So then I took the town of Fel's share of the budget at this point in time, which is just shy of 34%. And that's how we came up with that 16.225 million, which is obviously not money that we can just fund. we we're

348
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going to have to borrow that money for for them to do the renovations up at the Upper Cape Regional Tech School. >> So, just a quick point when we say we have to borrow the money, this is the the premise of the concern, Mr. Chair,

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is I know we haven't said we're going to raise taxes, but we often say the words it will involve borrowing more money. So that's my point in this to just we have to be cognizant of how much and this is the exercise we are going to borrow and

350
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how much the tax burden affordability is on our average taxpayer the people we want to keep here. >> No, not disagreeing one bit. I just >> what we've decided and what we need to consider. That's all

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>> your your earlier point. Never mind. Well, and there are certain I mean there are some assumptions in here that in terms of timing when the project will start, how much we'll need at what given point in time. Some of that stuff is

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better um some of the larger projects have that work already done, but there are projects in here like the Lawrence School that work hasn't been done at all yet. Um, so you know, we're going with the

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number that was in the 10-year plan for 150 million. We don't know what the number will be. We didn't reduce it by the 38.5% because we have no idea what the number is going to be. If it comes in at 200 million, then 150 million over 30 years

354
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is likely close, maybe a little high, but not much um if we have to borrow that much. So right now and also the timing of when these projects will happen is a is something that needs to be considered as

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well. I mean some of these projects you may want to defer for a while and as I said at the beginning you know any given day this information can change. >> So um they don't have a quorum. Am I

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allowed to ask any of the finance committee members to make public comment if they wish? Just they look at >> let's get through this procedure and see if anyone from the fincom wants to talk. >> Number of different faces. So I'm just intrigued. >> I'm getting a a shake of the head over

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there. So okay. >> Well, we are also going to meet with Fincom on the forecast on May 6th. >> Oh, good. Awesome. Laura, as we're looking at these um numbers for potential projects, including wastewater, um have we calculated in the operating

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budget projections the operating cost of each of these major projects in that? >> We have not. >> Okay. Cuz aa >> cost or savings? No, it has not been factored into the operating budget.

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>> Again, by way of example, Lexington very expensive building having to cut people. I think before we get to that, we're going to have to look at, you know, can we afford this? If not, are we

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willing to uh cut services to fund some of these projects because I don't think we have the money to do it all based on current assumptions. >> I can, Mr. Sure. I can give a quick uh example of how we are the beginning as Laura mentioned that those costs aren't calculated or figured into this, but we

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are working with uh the police chief and uh and and the consultant and and driving that number. Now, with regards to the operating cost of the new facility, the 45,000 foot versus the current facility. >> I think we're way ahead of Lexington at this point. >> So, we do know that's a factor. We do

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know it's a factor and we are we are investigating that and hopefully we'll have that number relatively quickly. and the combined projection sheet that we'll look at at the end um it does include everything so you have at least a basis for

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starting those discussions. All right. >> I'll just for future meetings and Doug to pick up on what you've been saying for a long time looking at these potential projects. Um I'll be quite frank if I were asked to describe what a

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number of these are. I wouldn't know. Um and so I think we really do need to to dig into and Laura, as you just said, both what are these projects? what's their priority for the town and potentially what's you know what's the

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scope what's the scale and and what's the timing of those um which I think is beyond the scope of tonight's discussion but but obviously really important >> just another question on the potential impacts of the projects that you have in

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here is anything that does not have a tax impact is means it will not like there's no tax impact if we do that projects. So for instance, East Felmouth Library, >> I didn't I didn't calculate if for the smaller ones because there's enough debt

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dropping off that it >> okay >> it would cover those. >> And then same with the wastewater. >> Well, so wastewater is a little different. >> Yeah, that's what I'm asking. >> So the wastewater projects um

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Yeah. So you'll see as I'm paging down here, we have possible options for wastewater debt that have are just there on this page to give you an example of what potentially could

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happen. So if you look at wastewater improvement fund for one and a half% and you know I'm as you know I'm retiring at the end of May so I probably am the only person who

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can stand up here and say this but there are people that have talked about potentially shifting money from the um CPC C fund which is currently at 3% sort

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of splitting that in half half and creating a wastewater improvement fund. That is an option or you can do another one and a half or 3% um search charge just for the wastewater improvement fund. But we are

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recommending it because the costs of wastewater are really expensive and they those those projects tend to be the timing is not always exact in terms of the 10-year plan, but they're planned

373
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out quite far in advance, those projects. And so, and the reasons for them are tend to be regulatory in nature. um mostly because in a lot of cases you have to do those projects.

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So um that's why wastewater is shown a little separately and that's why one of the recommendations or items to consider is possibly covering wastewater debt with the wastewater improvement fund.

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>> Can I ask a question about how the the the whiff works? Um, is this a uh any excess not spent rolls over? >> So, as we're looking at this across the the years, it's, you know, we get to 2034 and we've actually got a a deficit,

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but in those first years, we're actually accumulating money in the fund. >> That's right. >> Okay. So, the numbers you see here um show you if we used the 1 and a.5% wastewater fund, you'll see you're

377
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accumulating money and then as you start to use debt, you'll see we're reducing by the amount of wastewater debt. So, you at least have coverage on the one and a half% through fiscal year 2033. And again, wastewater wastewater tends

378
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to be I don't know, you do a 20 or 30 year um you know, infrastructure improvement plan, but timing isn't always you can only guess at your timing. So when you get into the outer years and

379
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you're looking at what would be phase two or three of the sewer plan, sewing plan once you start to get out into past 2036. I think now you're even talking about possibly phase three at that

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point. Um the timing on that and and the numbers obviously aren't exact. You'll have a much better sense of that as you move along. >> Quick wastewater question. How much do we draw out of the Cape Islands Water

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Protection Fund? >> Um, so I'm not sure how to answer that question other than I'll try it this way. So the the fund uh established bylaws um and based on all the current all of the available information as of a

382
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few years ago the policy decision was that 25% of all the debt service is going to be subsidized by the Capean's water protection fund. So we had gathered all of the capital plans all the wastewater plans of all the Cape communities and that looked like it was

383
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feasible. Fast forward um COVID and uh hyperinflation um we had to redo that model from money upfront to offsetting debt service and and 25% seems doable. Um and that's sort

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of where we are now. But there is um there's pressure on it from another end which is in order to as you probably know in order to be eligible to get money from the cape fund you have to be um approved by the state on the state

385
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revolving fund. Well the cape has overwhelmed the state revolving fund and they have put us on notice that they're going to be challenged to fund our um wastewater needs over the next 10 years. >> Thank you. I just like uh it's generated

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$125 million over uh over that in in revenue and I know it's been a successful that two and a half two and a quarter% on state x tax but um yeah obviously the projections have been a lot a lot more than than expected. So um

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thank you for that update. I just didn't >> Laura quick question for you. Um we're given individual override impacts on this one with the taxes and some of it's going to be offset by um a retiring debt, but is it is it possible for us to

388
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get maybe in a future meeting like a sequenced multi multi-year maybe a multi-deade override map because right now we're seeing things in individually but not collectively on an individual

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taxpayer. Like does that make sense? >> Yes. Yes, it does. >> Okay. Any other questions on the debt projection? I know we're okay. I'm going to jump to

390
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the um free cash CIP funded projection, but this won't take any time at all. So, as I had said, this is the November 2025 10-year plan. All the debt funded projects have been pulled out of this.

391
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And there's been a couple items highlighted which um I can guarantee you have already changed because MEES submitted um their CIP early. So, I know that has changed. those highlighted items. We're saying we're not going to

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issue debt for those, but they're too large or they're not um they're not the type of project that we would issue debt for, like um beach nourishment for $3 million because sand doesn't have much

393
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of a life in terms of long-term debt. Sorry, that's the reality. So, we're saying we're going to use some of the 17 million plus that we have right now in capital and debt stabilization. That's the only reason they're highlighted on

394
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here for purposes of the projection. So, if you go to the last page on this, you'll see what the what the amount of the free cash proposed funded CIP is in total.

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And you'll see that we've set the free cash target at 15 million. And so in fiscal year 27, can you see this? Is this on the screen? Can you see this? Okay.

396
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>> Have to keep enlarging it, right? >> Okay. So, so if we stick to the 15 million in fiscal year 27 on this projection,

397
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then we need to find five and $5.6 million to reduce in fiscal year 27 capital that's in the in the plan. Okay? And that's the way this works all the way across until the last year. Um,

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you actually have a slight you don't you're you're below the the 15 million, >> but we haven't piled on the other debt. >> Yeah, there's no debt on this one. This this takes all the debt out. >> Okay. >> This is only for what we're proposing to

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fund for 10 years with certified free cash and grants or other available funds if that we have them, but it's primarily certified free cash. Two questions on that. I mean well so one a comment which is I mean for one I

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would say something like the three million in sand for surf drive. We should be looking for grant opportunities from the state for things like that and making sure that we optimize grant opportunities. I always find it disorienting when looking at the budget

401
01:55:26.000 --> 01:55:41.599
request that grant funded projects don't show up in there. I know we don't have a good way to to bring all of that together, but um making sure that as much as possible of these projects goes gets grant funding. Um my question is with the use of capital and debt

402
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stabilization funding and what went into um the projected numbers there with the 8.9 million used in FY27 and 1.5 in each of the subsequent years. >> Right? So, if you go back, so I've just

403
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paged up to the water fund has 3.3 million in for um construction of the distribution storage building. And I'm saying, yeah, we're not going to borrow for that.

404
01:56:13.360 --> 01:56:29.360
We're going to use capital and debt stabilization for that. The same thing if you go up um 1.6 6 million in um lift station resiliency improvements for wastewater and then I had already

405
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pointed out the um the beach and then the rest of it in the second and third year it's all the aquaculture expansion for nitrogen reduction but I know that um those are no longer the

406
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numbers and that will not be what's in of fiscal year 27 through 36 CIP. >> So we're going to the um the bottom of your spreadsheet where you show the um

407
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deficit over the surplus deficit over target. So in 2027, we're going to have to find $5.5 million or cut 5.5 from the the task list, which would then create a deferred project,

408
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>> right? And it's not accounted for in the 3 million shortfall the next year. So ultimately the next year would be in total we'd have to come up with $8 million unless we happen to find >> No, this does not carry forward because it's one it's a one-time expense.

409
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>> So it's only an expense in that given year. This is the using >> I I think what he's saying is that the options we would have with any given expenditure here is never do it, defer it a year, find another funding source. >> Well, yes, if you deferred the projects,

410
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then yes, you would. But again, fiscal year 27, the what we're looking at are the um is the 10-year CIP and departments have actually are starting

411
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to put together the actual fiscal year 27 requests. Now, they should not be that much different than what has already been submitted because we've asked departments to be comprehensive

412
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and thoughtful about at least the first 3 to five years of the 10-year plan so that, you know, we can plan accordingly, if you will. Um, but,

413
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you know, stuff is changing. Yeah, sorry. >> Particularly in capital. >> So anyway, we're assuming in the combined projection which I'm going to go to now

414
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that we've reduced to 15 million in each of the years. All right. So now we're going to look at the combined operating debt and cash funded CIP projections. All right. So the top part is any

415
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possible funding that's in any of these projections that we've talked about so far. So we know what the taxes, the other funding sources, local receipts, state revenues, they all come from the operating budget forecast.

416
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Annual debt service capacity below 15 million that comes from the debt forecast and was in that page. And then the free cash funding target of

417
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15 million. So, we're assuming we're going to have 15 million in each one of these years of certified free cash to pay for capital and then the three um three years of the capital and debt stabilization fund funding which we just looked at

418
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that. So, it if we had left the operating override in um our operating projection that would have come over as a potential funding source. the debt overrides. For purposes of this

419
02:00:26.320 --> 02:00:44.400
combined um projection, we're assuming because we've already made it clear to um to the public several times or more than that that if we go if we do the debt for the police station and if they

420
02:00:44.400 --> 02:01:00.320
do the and and if they approved the Lawrence school that that's going to have to be exempt debt. There's going to have to be debt exemptions for those two projects. They're large and the timing would require debt

421
02:01:00.320 --> 02:01:18.800
overrides or yeah, debt exclusions. So, when you put all of that down here, you get total revenues and funding sources. Then we have our operating expenses which included the o issued approved

422
02:01:18.800 --> 02:01:35.920
debt issued debt only. We have um projected debt except for wastewater which comes from the the debt projections. We have the projected

423
02:01:35.920 --> 02:01:54.480
wastewater debt. We have free cash funded CIP which we just looked at that comes from the page we just looked at and then the capital and debt stabilization funding.

424
02:01:54.480 --> 02:02:14.960
Um sorry it no I am on the right page here. Okay, that gives you your total expenses and other funding needs. And then you have um your overall surplus of revenues over

425
02:02:14.960 --> 02:02:30.000
expenditures, revenues and funding sources over expenditures and uses. So this shows you what's going to happen if we go forward with everything as in the forecast at this point in time. We

426
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issue the debt when it's projected in the forecast. for every project that's projected in the forecast. When we fund um the operating expenses as issued in the forecast

427
02:02:48.880 --> 02:03:05.040
and then some possible solutions. So, we talked about what would happen if we put in the $1.4 4 million as a reduction of expenditures to balance out the operating forecast in fiscal year 28. So that would come over as a possible

428
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solution and reduce the million the $4.7 million deficit to I believe it was um well it's $1.4 million off of it. Then if we had

429
02:03:22.960 --> 02:03:40.400
if we add back or we reduce the um CIP free cash funded CIP to 15 million in each year that gives us reduction of the deficit

430
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as well. And then if it's if you do the one and a half percent wastewater improvement fund, which is what the highlighted numbers are, that's a possibility as well. So overall, I mean, you're looking at pretty substantial if

431
02:03:58.400 --> 02:04:13.040
you wanted to do if you were going to try to do tax increases, either operating overrides or um debt exclusions each year to get rid of these potential deficits on the red

432
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lines, the red numbers here, uh it would be unaffordable. There's no question about it. So, thank you for saying that. Um, just one quick question for you. Um, I see in the debt overrides, you only list the police

433
02:04:29.840 --> 02:04:45.679
station and Lawrence school, yet in another one, you have listed potential projects not included not including wastewater in there. Um, so for the rec for for this worksheet that you have there,

434
02:04:45.679 --> 02:05:01.840
none of the other ones that we've talked about, East Falmouth Library comprehensive building needs. Um, other ones that you have mapped out here as potential tax impacts, they are not included in this spreadsheet, correct? Or in this piece of the work uh work page.

435
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>> The debt the projected debt service is included in this worksheet. What's not included is what I I only assumed debt exclusions for the police station because they've been talked

436
02:05:17.280 --> 02:05:34.800
about and for Lawrence school because they've been talked about. >> Okay. >> None of the others have. What we do have included in here though is the amount. If you go back up to the top here, it says annual debt

437
02:05:34.800 --> 02:05:49.360
service capacity below 15 million. Yeah. >> Right. So that's that amount that debt will be dropping off or that's below 15 million where you have some capacity for other projects that have

438
02:05:49.360 --> 02:06:12.239
already without significantly impacting your budget. >> Right. >> Question. >> I'm sorry. >> Sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say, so if you wanted to look at the East Balmouth Library for instance, your debt service

439
02:06:12.239 --> 02:06:27.520
there is about $570,000 a year. So if you look at your debt capacity, that would definitely fit within that. >> Yeah. When you look at the police station, that's the first year of debt

440
02:06:27.520 --> 02:06:44.239
service, annual debt service on that is $6 million, which is not going to fit in any of that drop off. And certainly once you get to the 150 or 200 million that you're going to need for Lawrence school, and these are numbers that are being pulled out of

441
02:06:44.239 --> 02:06:59.280
the air completely. So, please don't quote me. We don't have any idea what the actual cost of those of that project would be. So, I don't want anybody thinking that I'm standing up here saying it's going to cost $150 million

442
02:06:59.280 --> 02:07:16.639
to do Warren School. We don't know what it's going to cost. >> But just to clarify, what what number were you using for with respect to the police station? What amount? >> 60 million. >> 60. >> Okay. question for you in terms of

443
02:07:16.639 --> 02:07:32.639
um paying debt service and this connection between debt capital and our operating budget. The way you've done this projection, there's 8.9 million in capital and debt

444
02:07:32.639 --> 02:07:47.520
stabilization being used largely to offset the free cash funded CIP. Right. >> Right. Well, I also do have it built. I have $2 million a year as a potential

445
02:07:47.520 --> 02:08:04.560
use starting in 2030. If you go down here to the bottom, >> okay, >> you'll see additional use of capital. Now, we currently have, let's say, 17.5 million in capital and debt stabilization. So

446
02:08:04.560 --> 02:08:21.280
how that's actually going to get used and whether or not there will be additional funding which we hope there will be um is you know >> right >> well I mean based on the projections that are here funding is not forthcoming

447
02:08:21.280 --> 02:08:35.760
>> many different ways but for purposes of this this is what we did. I guess what what I'm getting at is something for us to I think consider, double check me on this, but um is that if we do some of

448
02:08:35.760 --> 02:08:52.560
the work of trying to pair down the free cash funded CIP burden, there uh is some of our debt service that is not exclusion funded and those capital

449
02:08:52.560 --> 02:09:09.119
and debt stabilization funds could be used to fill some of that gap and that would create room in the operating budget. Am I correct on that ripple effect because it's it's it's coming from the the tax levy to fund that debt service

450
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that is not exclusionf funded. >> Yes, it requires a twothirds vote by town meeting, but yes. >> Yeah, potentially you could use the capital and debt stabilization fund to offset either debt within the levy limit or exempt debt. So depending on whether

451
02:09:25.599 --> 02:09:39.920
which one it is, it would either free up room in the operating budget temporarily for one year um or it would reduce the tax burden temporarily for one year. >> Right. >> It's dangerous to start planning it

452
02:09:39.920 --> 02:09:59.920
though. It's more for unexpected, >> right? >> Okay. Okay. Are there any additional questions on the forecasts at this point in time? I know it's a lot of information to digest. >> I just hope you have a good vacation lined up. You know, amount of numbers

453
02:09:59.920 --> 02:10:15.679
you have. >> He has a retirement coming up. I think that's the ultimate vacation. >> But thank you. Yes, this is really helpful. >> Very helpful. >> I'd like to Yeah. Just second that. I think this has been very helpful. I think we the board should, you know, have to think about whether we want to

454
02:10:15.679 --> 02:10:31.520
and and think about adopting a sequence of overrides instead of just the one-off votes that we're talking about, >> but also maybe commit to a multi-year tax road map overall just just so we're, you know, we're looking at what the actual impacts are on an everyday

455
02:10:31.520 --> 02:10:47.040
person. And then I I don't I don't want to, you know, not to doge it, but if there's any way we can do a blanket percent cuts in either capital projects or departments, if it makes sense, I mean, I I think that is the the last personally in my philosophy, that's the

456
02:10:47.040 --> 02:11:04.159
last place I would like to go. But if that's what it comes to, I think that's also something we should consider. Said the guy transitioning off. Okay. So, we did put a slide into the PowerPoint that shows you just what with

457
02:11:04.159 --> 02:11:21.599
the projections and the estimates for for four potential two operating overrides and the two um debt exclusion overrides, what the impact would be for an average single family home and what the impact would be for a median single

458
02:11:21.599 --> 02:11:39.119
single family home. um just so you have an idea and and we did use the DLS calculator to come up with those numbers. So, um, as far as the rest of the

459
02:11:39.119 --> 02:11:57.440
PowerPoint, I can stand up here and turn the pages or >> just just one one clarification and I probably should know the answer, but the $150 million for Lawrence School, is that the gross amount or Yes. Yes. So

460
02:11:57.440 --> 02:12:12.800
they're we're expecting and hoping for state reimbursement of up to 38% of that amount. Okay. Just want to make sure. Thank you. >> Yes. So um we could have done this a number of different ways. We always want to be

461
02:12:12.800 --> 02:12:29.920
conservative particularly Laura to her credit. Um so you know we could have put it in at 200 the the range given by the school department was 150 million to 200 million. So, we could have done 200 million with a 38% reduction for state aid. You know, this the other approach

462
02:12:29.920 --> 02:12:45.280
was go on the low end of the cost but not include the reimbursement. >> No, that's that's fine. I just want to make sure everyone understood. And and one other thing, if I may, while we're on this slide, I know the select board is aware, but perhaps for the public benefit, just to um let folks know that

463
02:12:45.280 --> 02:13:02.560
we did get our first um professional opinion of cost for the police station based on schematic level design. So, still early in the design process. Uh but that number did come in with a a new total estimated project cost including

464
02:13:02.560 --> 02:13:19.360
all soft costs, furnishing, fixtures, and equipment design. etc. of 60 million which is down from the 65 million that had been our target and so that's the reason that uh that 60 million is used for that slide there. >> Sorry and did you say design as well but

465
02:13:19.360 --> 02:13:36.079
we already have the 4.5 million that was >> correct >> authorized will be some additional design in the final appropriation >> and Peter real quickly is that based on the proposed staffing for 29 or the future staffing for in 50 years? So, the

466
02:13:36.079 --> 02:13:52.239
police station 45,000 square foot plus outbuilding um does allow for staffing growth for the 50-year plan. Um so, it does allow for significant staff increases. I I would point out and this is something that we can certainly

467
02:13:52.239 --> 02:14:09.119
discuss in detail with the architect and OPM uh that the the number of police officers that we are planning for building, you know, over and above what we currently have on staff, it doesn't

468
02:14:09.119 --> 02:14:26.800
change the square footage as dramatically as as I would have thought. um most and if part of it is just you know if you think about it's a shift operation right so we don't have all of the police officers in the building at any one given time far from it because

469
02:14:26.800 --> 02:14:42.480
you know first of all they're working on shifts and second of all even when they're on duty most of you know most of the patrol officers are out in the field um so yes the the building does allow for staffing growth um but not a huge square footage difference if we were to

470
02:14:42.480 --> 02:15:00.719
say no staffing growth Okay. Well, it is a lot to to digest and thank you Laura and Peter and everyone else. Um I mean is it would anyone like to have any comments with with respect to what we've discussed or hold your

471
02:15:00.719 --> 02:15:17.199
comments uh for future meetings. We will be having a number of them. Lame says yes hold your comments. So um just want to give you the opportunity. Okay, going once. >> Um, >> we do have we have

472
02:15:17.199 --> 02:15:34.719
>> M Harris. >> We do have three slides that that Mr. Renshaw is going to handle. >> Okay. >> At the end. >> Okay. >> Um, Mary Harris, precinct 5. I had a great number of thoughts and ideas listening to this presentation and

473
02:15:34.719 --> 02:15:50.000
recognize the amount of hard work that went into doing it. One thing that wasn't mentioned is we've had several studies done over the last couple of years where the demographic trends of the town have been projected, which would matter on how we do all our

474
02:15:50.000 --> 02:16:05.360
planning. And there doesn't seem to be any coordination among those on which studies are saying that we're going to be losing population versus ones that are gaining population. I think we need to get that resolved as part of our

475
02:16:05.360 --> 02:16:22.480
thinking. and I'll save all my other comments for later. >> Okay. I certainly didn't mean to cut you off, Mr. Law. So, why don't you go forward? >> So, Laura, do you mind >> and then we'll get to Mr. Neto? >> Can you can you just advance the slides? So, this is the participation part. So,

476
02:16:22.480 --> 02:16:38.399
we've got a couple of slides here that talk about um strategies, potential strategies going forward uh that the board can opt to uh to implement. Some of these we've already initiated. Um this list is not exhaustive, but I'm going to go through the first uh six or seven here. Um setting expectations for

477
02:16:38.399 --> 02:16:53.280
bud budget increases. Uh select board member Reed, I think this was one of the points in your in your memorandum. Um setting realistic budget uh targets uh with department heads as we go into discussions. We've actually begun this uh this process as Laura mentioned um

478
02:16:53.280 --> 02:17:11.280
the the FY27 CIP capital budget process has already been initiated and we've already given um some some some pretty um uh uh stringent requirements with regards to um use of free cash and and I'm going to get into that in on the next slide. Um and again what I want

479
02:17:11.280 --> 02:17:26.800
from these next couple of slides are suggestions. We're going to keep coming back to this probably over the next couple few months because this really is in terms of the policy decisions where we can make where we can move that needle where we can address some of these kind of structural deficits, timing of tax relief programs and need

480
02:17:26.800 --> 02:17:42.639
for overrides. Um we've already had uh some of these discussions with regards to um you know currently considering implementing the residential tax exemption in FY28. Um coincidentally FY28 is that first year where we're going to be looking at this u potential operational override. Um we're also um

481
02:17:42.639 --> 02:17:59.439
town meeting also, as you all know, just recently approved the affordable rental, uh tax exemption. So that may be another lever, so to speak, uh technique or strategy that we can employ. Um the use of uh uh establishing and utilizing enterprise uh funds um in new areas. Um

482
02:17:59.439 --> 02:18:15.120
I've had some discussions with staff um and and some members of the finance committee. um solid waste management, that curbside collection. You know, right now, as you all know, um that four plus million dollars is uh is is um property tax. There's an opportunity

483
02:18:15.120 --> 02:18:30.880
perhaps in the future to look at shifting that um to uh to more of a feebased uh system, an enterprise proprietary fund. Um storm water utility is another concept. I've talked to the DPW director and some members of FINCOM. Um there's significant storm water needs

484
02:18:30.880 --> 02:18:47.280
over the next 10 years and I don't think we've done a very good job quite honestly in programming those costs over 10 years u but a utility fee may be an example of a again a tool or a technique that we can employ um to uh reduce property tax burden uh petition states

485
02:18:47.280 --> 02:19:04.479
we talked about this kind of at length um with regards to the the current um 8% contribution that PARK uh the state agency uh requires again based on um the requirement to pay off our our our our uh our our pension contribution, pension

486
02:19:04.479 --> 02:19:21.120
obligation by 2040. Right now, we're kind of on an escalated uh expedited, I should say, schedule, paying that off by 2034. To the extent that we can move that number out to 2036, I think Barnes County, I think, is an example of where they've they've been

487
02:19:21.120 --> 02:19:36.240
able to >> they're at least one year out. I can't remember if it was 2035 or 23 >> either either extend out that uh that that uh um fulfillment of that debt obligation by a year or two or obviously on the other side reducing the annual contribution would have a huge huge

488
02:19:36.240 --> 02:19:53.120
impact. Laura showed the numbers. I can't remember what they are but pretty significant impact. Um consolidation um I think select board member Brown had been talking about this with regards to our our our town parcel inventory. um looking at selling off um

489
02:19:53.120 --> 02:20:08.080
parcels of property. We've initiated that with regards to affordable housing, not so much selling them off as a revenue source um but disposing of property. Um so that would that will be a future discussion. Um we're we're about to uh launch a feasibility and

490
02:20:08.080 --> 02:20:23.760
best use study um as you all know for 10 pumping station road um as well as Morris Pond and I think those feasibility and best use studies will inform those decisions going forward. Uh Peter's been getting ready to to begin working on those RFPs. Um so hopefully

491
02:20:23.760 --> 02:20:41.040
we'll have that information. Um is a is a again to inform our decisions. Um increased cost shares for retiring um health insurance. And importantly, I want to point out this does not impact um our current 50% contribution for current Medicare eligible retirees. This

492
02:20:41.040 --> 02:20:56.960
is just for the non-Medicare plans only. I'm looking at amending revising our contribution toward those plans. those would be going forward or would those impact current retirees as well? >> Um >> to be determined. Yeah, I think that's

493
02:20:56.960 --> 02:21:11.520
just a policy decision that could be set. >> Um this is a large category and it encompasses a lot of different things but changes uh in in in policy. And I'll start with this. I'll give you a current example um of something that we're looking at um or something we've

494
02:21:11.520 --> 02:21:28.960
actually implemented um and it's not listed in the list of examples here. Um uh we're actually implementing a soft hiring freeze right now. Um requiring departments to provide workload and other data measures u metrics to kind of justify and warrant um filling positions that go vacant.

495
02:21:28.960 --> 02:21:44.800
Another thing to consider um is uh looking at positions that have been funded but yet vacant for over a year. Um there's there's a few positions uh like that that um could could result in significant savings. Again, a discussion for another night. Laura, could you

496
02:21:44.800 --> 02:22:00.720
advance the slide, please? Um, I think we've done a really good job over the past couple of few years in uh with regards to the capital improvement plan. Again, tying the strategic plan to uh to to set priorities and at least show that nexus or connection. But um in

497
02:22:00.720 --> 02:22:15.600
my mind, there's more that we can do with regards to the operating budget. Again, creating that nexus and connection. Um we talked about um Laura mentioned um setting this free cash policy and I think this summarizes it really well. targeting a balance, a $5 million

498
02:22:15.600 --> 02:22:31.040
unspent balance after all capital appropriations have been made and setting that that those monies aside for critical needs, emergency needs, uh following April's town meeting. And she's listed a couple of examples that we recently uh experienced, unfortunately, the snow and ice removal

499
02:22:31.040 --> 02:22:49.040
costs and simply just the storm recovery. Um so, so clearly um the next um uh five or six years are going to be very difficult ones. um and questions that this select board um needs to pose and staff need to do research on and again collaborating and working with select

500
02:22:49.040 --> 02:23:05.920
board um what projects in the capital plan current capital plan can be deferred can be pushed um I think we have to be very careful and I think that's why I'm encouraged by um I mentioned it earlier the Brightly uh capital uh uh uh management capital planning management tool that's going to

501
02:23:05.920 --> 02:23:21.920
allow us to um make better decisions based on data in terms of what categories of of building needs should be prioritized over others. Right now, it's a little bit arbitrary. Um, and I think that as we look at going forward trying to fine-tune that $10 million

502
02:23:21.920 --> 02:23:37.520
over the next 5year number, um, do we want to focus on um, life safety? In my opinion, that's clearly important. Um, or um, some of the some of the more critical use facilities. Um, this is something that we looked at

503
02:23:37.520 --> 02:23:54.080
just a few years ago with regards to uh, rate increases. And I'll start with the water. As you all know, um it was uh fall of 2023 when the water rates were most re recently set. Um I understand the water superintendent is looking at revisiting um water rates in 2027.

504
02:23:54.080 --> 02:24:10.720
Uh sewer rates were set, last set back in 2016 and haven't been amended since uh for a variety of reasons. Uh but it's also my understanding and talking to the DPW director that the wastewater superintendent intends to uh uh look at

505
02:24:10.720 --> 02:24:28.640
again um uh FY uh 27 is a uh or I'm sorry 2027 calendar year 2027 is a uh opportunity to look at wastewater rates and and consider uh revisions to those rates. We've talked a little bit about the whiff the uh wastewater improvement

506
02:24:28.640 --> 02:24:45.040
fund whether um the select board um and this is a policy decision sets that at one and a half% or 3% and in conjunction with that considers perhaps some other reduction um with regards to the uh community preservation uh contribution. That's that's another policy decision

507
02:24:45.040 --> 02:25:01.200
and discussion that has to be had. Um examine the policies and practices with um regards to how we utilize capital and debt stabilization fund. Um Laura touched on that briefly tonight, but I think going forward, those are discussions that we're going to have to have as a group. And uh lastly, and

508
02:25:01.200 --> 02:25:17.359
perhaps most importantly, the um need to gather citizen involvement and and input in the process. I'm currently projecting um at least three um uh community visioning sessions beginning um next month and likely running through August.

509
02:25:17.359 --> 02:25:33.760
We may have to adjust that a bit, but I'm looking at right now uh three community visioning sessions where again we're going to do kind of a chet and allow community residents to to give us some indication of what the priorities are um across those broad categories that Laura showed earlier with regards to the operational budget and the

510
02:25:33.760 --> 02:25:50.800
capital plan. So, um, lastly, and just kind of wrap this up a bit, um, is we've talked about before and it's been well documented in, I think, the Boston Globe, uh, Cape Cod Times, and even further back than that, the Massachusetts Municipal Association

511
02:25:50.800 --> 02:26:07.120
prepared a a pretty extensive, um, uh, uh, bulletin kind of documenting the challenges that a lot of, uh, Massachusetts Commonwealth communities are facing right now. So, we're not unique. doesn't make any of us feel any better sitting up here and and having these difficult decisions in front of

512
02:26:07.120 --> 02:26:24.479
us. But we're not unique. Um tonight and over the course of the next couple of months, um evaluating understanding the scope of these issues is clearly an important first step. And lastly, this is important um and and it's not rocket

513
02:26:24.479 --> 02:26:40.800
science. It's very intuitive. communities are successful to the extent that they can kind of begin to analyze and evaluate the issues. We began to do that tonight with regards to the operating and and capital budgets um and then make decisions based upon uh those

514
02:26:40.800 --> 02:26:56.319
factors that that optimize fiscal stability going forward for the community. Um so having community input in this process is going to be hugely important and it's something that staff and I are kind of planning on right now as we speak. And with that I think that's the last slide, right? Go ahead.

515
02:26:56.319 --> 02:27:20.439
>> Which is a a good segue into Mr. Neto's community involvement. You wanted to say something. >> Could you by the way? That's a position for microphone. >> Which slide do you want?

516
02:27:21.600 --> 02:27:40.880
Plus, >> we have no podium. Thank you. >> But you're addressing the board just appreciate nine. I appreciate the opportunity in the

517
02:27:40.880 --> 02:27:58.080
board of selectman in uh creating this meeting and other future meetings. I would have hoped that uh we would have had a lot more town meeting members um attend this because not one penny is spent. I I said this once I've said it a

518
02:27:58.080 --> 02:28:16.560
hundred times. Not one penny is spent without town meeting voting for it. The selectman don't raise taxes. Town meeting does. And that's, you know, I was just hoping that we would have uh more interest by

519
02:28:16.560 --> 02:28:34.640
town meeting members to get educated. This was a tremendous um presentation that Lara gave us. There's a a great deal of information uh to comprehend but to make decisions, you know, based on data and needs and

520
02:28:34.640 --> 02:28:50.080
not wants because there's no room for wants in the next 5 years. Um I don't understand and the one thing I didn't could not comprehend is how the

521
02:28:50.080 --> 02:29:08.000
outfall pipe got left out of the um police station and law school. Um I don't need an answer now. I'm not you know but >> it is in there somewhere. I mean it >> well it's there but in the sheets that you know you gave I know it's there but

522
02:29:08.000 --> 02:29:23.280
you know for the potential tax increase >> what the impact will be >> what the impact is right that's >> it just doesn't hit until 2031 but it's in there >> yeah and um okay but on this graph here and

523
02:29:23.280 --> 02:29:42.960
Laura I appreciate what you said it's unaffordable that's based on the wants of the department heads who represent what they feel you know for their department to do the job correctly. We cannot say no to every

524
02:29:42.960 --> 02:29:58.640
department that says I need this to do the service and that's what they provide for us. These are very hard decisions you know to make. Um, but this graph that's up here,

525
02:29:58.640 --> 02:30:14.560
as you can see, we can't go, how can we go from a debt of 15 million in 3 years to $40 million? You're not going to do it with my vote in the ballot box. I'm going to be honest with you right now.

526
02:30:14.560 --> 02:30:31.359
You're not going to do it. I don't know what's going to get cut whether it be services and those those are tremendous. Mr. Wshaw just mentioned some of the things and pardon him for that on the forward thinking that he's

527
02:30:31.359 --> 02:30:47.439
done. He got me interested in this last August when he spoke to us at the Felmouth Heights uh association back in August and he mentioned of course the outfall pipe because it's going in the heights and he was very

528
02:30:47.439 --> 02:31:02.560
you know very blunt and he says and we don't have the money to pay for it right now and after that meeting I um met with members of the FINCOM and uh chairman of the FINCOM and tried to get a handle and

529
02:31:02.560 --> 02:31:18.560
understanding of these figures that were presented here tonight. But the reason I'm coming to the microphone because already again it's mentioned about raising rates. Um very uh I applaud you

530
02:31:18.560 --> 02:31:34.560
for the uh CPI reduction. Um quickly make that because that cat's out of the bag. Why don't you do 1% 1% on the um community preservation act

531
02:31:34.560 --> 02:31:50.319
instead of three and 1% on wastewater sewer cuz we kind of because I'm paying three now we got Proposition 2 and a half overrides. I think these are some of the things that the board of selectmen have

532
02:31:50.319 --> 02:32:09.439
really got to look at. And the reason I came to the microphone is to represent a group of people that I don't think you're aware of. when this sewer project um this one has a funny name, but when we sew up to the Kuna Meset River, when you when you take

533
02:32:09.439 --> 02:32:26.960
the new Silver Beach sewer project, which is only about 200 homes, the 1500 homes in the Little Pond sewer project, and I think there's 800, we come to approximately uh 2300

534
02:32:26.960 --> 02:32:42.479
homes in Falmouth being sewed. I'm paying a 30-year note every year on my tax bill for that. Those homes on the sewer now represent 10%

535
02:32:42.479 --> 02:32:58.399
of the homes in Felmouth. So, you have 10% of your taxpayers paying an additional cost for 30 years. I'll never You're never going to get the bill paid by me, I don't think. But you

536
02:32:58.399 --> 02:33:14.720
that's that's a chunk of money that comes on our tax bill as the sewer abatement and that's there for 30 well probably about 24 Mr. How many years have we had the sew? Anyhow, so that's something

537
02:33:14.720 --> 02:33:31.760
that you have to take in consideration. And when you raise the rates on water and sew, raise the rates for this, it's just another way of saying a tax to pay to by the taxpayer. So whether you call it a tax or a rate,

538
02:33:31.760 --> 02:33:49.040
it's an increase. And to do this and keep everybody happy is going to be an impossible job that the board of selectman and the town manager is going to undertake undertake. There's no way

539
02:33:49.040 --> 02:34:06.160
you're going to make everyone happy and somebody has got to learn how to say no. So, but thank you for the opportunity. I think this was a very worthwhile uh uh to attend all of your meetings to see

540
02:34:06.160 --> 02:34:23.520
the thinking. Um there's a lot of work that went into just presenting this amount of information here tonight. Hopefully we'll get a better turnout in the future meetings. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Joe. Okay,

541
02:34:23.520 --> 02:34:39.280
no further discussion on this item. I just have one last point and I think um to drive it home um I think to figure out affordability I mean Mr. Netto just kind of took my thunder where you know rate increases still affect the wallet.

542
02:34:39.280 --> 02:34:57.040
The shifting of costs still affect the wallet. So the bigger question is who do we want to live here and stay here and so we have not in all these numbers calculated the tax burden on the median household and then the tax burden for I

543
02:34:57.040 --> 02:35:15.280
would say five or six key sectors trades fixed income service industry science tech school and healthcare to understand what is the maximum acceptable annual tax increase for the median household, but is what is realistic in our override

544
02:35:15.280 --> 02:35:30.080
capacity over the next 20 years? Because we're throwing around a lot of tax override numbers. But if we can't afford it to keep these people here and we only want rich people here, well, that's fine. Make that decision. But I don't think that's what we want because the

545
02:35:30.080 --> 02:35:46.880
fabric of what makes Felmouth special, and I wrote this in the memo, is that we have always been the workforce of the Cape. We have always been the yearround community. So, I mean, yeah, you're right. We can we have kept our taxes low, lower than other places, but I

546
02:35:46.880 --> 02:36:03.200
think we did it for a purpose to take care of our people. And maybe we don't have as much bandwidth as we think we do to pay for all of these all at once. So, I think for the next thing we have to do is really look at the a tax burden

547
02:36:03.200 --> 02:36:18.319
analysis to understand, do we have a percentage point to move or a couple? We don't know. If I might, Mr. Chair, I had >> intended this to follow from Mr. Renshaw's last slide. Uh, not

548
02:36:18.319 --> 02:36:36.319
necessarily a rebuttal of uh, Mr. Reid or Mr. Neto, but I would add to what makes towns successful. Um, at their core, we need people to actually want to be here. And no one, rich or poor, will want to

549
02:36:36.319 --> 02:36:54.000
be here if we have no beaches and crumbling stairs to the non-existent beaches. If we have decrepit buildings, if we don't have good schools, we can talk about things that are needs or wants. In the end, we need to strike

550
02:36:54.000 --> 02:37:12.399
a balance of making Falmouth a livable, desirable community. And that's not going to be accomplished by only saying no and only cutting services. We're going to have to strike a balance. And quite frankly, you get what you pay for,

551
02:37:12.399 --> 02:37:27.040
right? Things don't come for free, either town services or anything else. And so, we are going to have to find ways to strike a balance. I I don't think there's a way to just cost cut our way out of this and end up with a

552
02:37:27.040 --> 02:37:43.920
Falmouth that any of us would recognize or want. >> No. And and and to that point, uh I think it's um it's missed uh but everyone knows it that the median price house in Fmouth has increased 20% over

553
02:37:43.920 --> 02:37:59.600
the past four years. And the reason that everyone has seeing that increased value in their homes is be because of that very reason. And we do do need to keep that in mind as well. >> Thank you. >> If I could, Mr. Chair. So, I'm hoping

554
02:37:59.600 --> 02:38:16.560
the next step will be that we'll look at the capital improvement plan and start to see where we can pair that down cuz I think we're our biggest responsibility is to find any way we can do anything possible to streamline our operation,

555
02:38:16.560 --> 02:38:32.640
reduce our overall tax, I mean overall expenses so that when we do have it fine-tuned, when we do go to the voters, if we if we are in the position where we have that we've done all we can to show that, you know, we're only going to be

556
02:38:32.640 --> 02:38:47.920
increasing what's the minimum required and that it's not just business as usual and, you know, just asking for more money. I I do think we need to outline, you know, all the issues and when we're going to address them. And, you know, as

557
02:38:47.920 --> 02:39:05.120
Mr. Reed has said and as I've advocated since I was since I've been chair is that I think we need more than uh one meeting every two weeks to start dealing with these going forward. So uh but I agree with you Mr. Brown. I think we need to plot it out and make sure that

558
02:39:05.120 --> 02:39:22.479
things work consistently with a focus and you know in that particular meeting if we're going to ask members in the community to you know meet more often we need to be more focused in what we're discussing. So, okay, that being said, uh we will move

559
02:39:22.479 --> 02:39:39.359
on to somewhat something that does have something to do with our uh with our finances. Uh and again, uh thanks to Mr. Richardson for uh for bringing this up and that is any possible

560
02:39:39.359 --> 02:39:56.000
uh modification to our fee waiver policy. Mr. Renaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh this is a discussion tonight and as the chair pointed out, it was select board member Richardson that brought this to uh to the table, so to speak. Um what I'm asking for tonight is that we have this

561
02:39:56.000 --> 02:40:11.359
discussion about the existing policy which as you all know um was uh was drafted in 2016 and hasn't been touched since. There's been no revisions to the to the policy and it's 10 years old. Um and then uh based upon that discussion

562
02:40:11.359 --> 02:40:27.040
um uh we will take input feedback uh from the board tonight and then u my goal is to come back at a future meeting in the near future based on the input and uh with some suggested revisions to that policy which is now 10 years old. Um, included in your packet, uh, we

563
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asked the office manager, Diane Davidson, to put together some information with regards to the, um, I'll call it the, you know, the smaller the special events, uh, type waiverss that Slugboard sees quite a bit of. Um, and, uh, and you have those, uh, is three spreadsheets in your packet, uh,

564
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for, uh, 24, 25, and calendar year 26 to date, year to date. Um, as you can see, um, the, uh, the amount of fees waved, um, are typically around between 11,000 and $12,000, and not a sign significant amount. Um, one of the other columns

565
02:41:00.880 --> 02:41:15.920
obviously for each of those calendar years illustrates the, uh, the amount of fees that would be imposed um, based upon the fee schedule. Um but as is pointed out in your packet um you know the goal of this plan uh or the the goal of the policy um is to consistently

566
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equitably implement and distribute um or implement in those fees across um all the organizations that are making application utilizing the schedule of fees. But from time to time whether it be a nonprofit affordable housing uh development or whatnot um there are times where um it would be appropriate

567
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to wave those consider waving those fees. Um so um we're here to um to to take take in any input you may have with regards to uh suggested uh amendments and quite honestly and candidly and Peter and I discussed this the policy as it's written right now is needs some

568
02:41:50.399 --> 02:42:06.160
word smithing um in addition to just simple um or not simple but some some significant policy decisions. It's just not very well worded to be honest with you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um yeah um you know our policy has kind of been yes uh I think

569
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over the past three years and you look at almost $30,000 um and before I you know continue I do want to say that you know all of these found is a wonderful community and all of these uh events and um things that we have considered fees

570
02:42:23.040 --> 02:42:39.600
for in the past are all terrific things for our community and I absolutely support doing what we can to keep special activities like this in place and charity like this in place because that's what part of what makes FAT so great. That being said, when we're looking at the, you know, we just spent 3 hours reviewing our finances. I think

571
02:42:39.600 --> 02:42:56.080
we need to think long and hard about uh I don't think we're in a position where we can be as charitable as we have been. Um so I, you know, whether it is just as individual members, uh we vote differently than we have. You

572
02:42:56.080 --> 02:43:12.720
know, I think it's been kind of ceremonial almost a lot of fee wavers where it's just it's on the agenda that means we're doing it. Um, but I think we should uh and as Mr. Wrench just indicated, I think this policy should be changed because I don't think it's written very um thing is it can be

573
02:43:12.720 --> 02:43:28.160
updated for sure. Kind of like how we update a lot of our strategic goals to be more actionoriented and more focused. I think this policy is also like that where um in parts of it can be a bit vague. So, I'm of the belief that we should um stop considering full fee

574
02:43:28.160 --> 02:43:44.640
waiverss, period. Um and that, you know, if it makes sense to do a partial fee waiver, if it's, you know, organization that's looking to a nonprofit that is looking to bring something to the community or uh you know, one of the different charitable uh things that we want to help make a contribute to, I

575
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think that is could be appropriate. But um I just don't think we're in the fiscal um the fiscal realities are the fiscal realities and I don't think we're in a position where we have been giving out as many fee wavers as we have been. >> Anyone else? Miss Goldstone.

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>> Um when this came up, I was um thrown back to I believe my first meeting on the board uh where one of the questions I asked was how much do we usually bring in in fee wavers? How many

577
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of them do we wave? How much are we giving up in revenue? The amount that we are giving up in revenue is fairly small, but as has been noted, we're going to need to make a lot of little nips and tucks um to try to

578
02:44:30.399 --> 02:44:47.520
um make ends meet over the coming years. And I think what to me stands out with this policy, what rubs me the wrong way is that if we are setting a policy that we are waving or making exemptions to 50% of the time, then we need to change

579
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the policy. Um because constantly granting waivers is uh first of all that application process comes with an administrative burden. It comes with time before this board. um it imposes a a burden on the applicants. And so

580
02:45:04.800 --> 02:45:21.920
whether we want to decide that and it's frankly not equitable, right, when it's a a requestbased and um and and kind of well when it's a by request as opposed to just kind of a built-in um thing that waivers should be for truly exceptional

581
02:45:21.920 --> 02:45:38.240
circumstances, not 50% of of applications um or of of special events. And so I think if we want to consider implementing um just default reduced fees for certain

582
02:45:38.240 --> 02:45:58.080
types of events or if we want to say no, it's got to be truly exceptional circumstances for there to be a waiver. Um but would would like to set the policy clearly enough that waivers are in fact a truly rare thing. Um not not

583
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the general rule or not 50% of events. >> Go ahead, Mr. P. >> I think it's difficult to to do that because a lot of these are events that are free to the public and they're basically volunteers that are operating them and they improve the quality of life for people. Many of them don't

584
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really cost us anything. So, I don't know, maybe the wording could be changed and maybe there could be some more some more efficiencies, but I'm not really opposed to if it's 50% of the activities that are free, open to the public and improving the quality of life in town

585
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and it's only costing us 30 grand. I don't know. >> I agree. We should think about it, but I'm not sure that we really want to overhaul the whole thing and say no more free events because we're tight on money because these add a lot of quality of life to to the town.

586
02:46:50.319 --> 02:47:05.200
>> To be clear, I think the policy we could choose to set is there is no fee associated with these. But make that the actual policy, not a waiver that we're >> processing. I agree. We need to, you know, to look at the time that we spend on these requests, uh, and the amount

587
02:47:05.200 --> 02:47:22.399
that we're actually giving up so that, uh, uh, maybe we take a look at at all of the fees and consider an a minimum amount, uh, and wave that all the time and then just bring exceptional cases to the, uh, uh, to the select board for

588
02:47:22.399 --> 02:47:38.560
decision. So, andor the town manager. And that and and Doug's last point was kind of why I believe it's like if if it is just a political decision by each of us, I'm totally fine with that. Um I just don't like how it's been a bit ceremonial with some of them. And there was one there was one in particular that

589
02:47:38.560 --> 02:47:53.920
I remember where it was like it was someone who had been awarded a found cultural grant by the town was then requesting a fee waver from the town. So we just gave out money and then they're requesting a fee waver. We gave them money. So things avoiding situations like that too. um where it's you know

590
02:47:53.920 --> 02:48:10.960
we've already from from happening I think is important um but I to echo what the vice chair said and what Doug just said you know this this is not a lot of money guaranteed but we've said that about a lot of things um so just looking where wherever we can um is I think

591
02:48:10.960 --> 02:48:28.960
important >> all right um >> anyone else >> for town manager assistant town manager um one thing that is a consideration in the setting of many of our fees is the actual staff time in processing

592
02:48:28.960 --> 02:48:44.479
applications in terms of most of these event permits I'm assuming or the where these fees fee requests fee waiver requests are coming do the set

593
02:48:44.479 --> 02:49:01.359
fees cover the staff costs of reviewing those applications >> I would say I I would say no they do not um As you all know, there's a special event working group um and that's comprised of what Peter 12 staff um the application process itself um to submitt

594
02:49:01.359 --> 02:49:17.120
and review. Um so no, I would is it I would generally say no, the fees do not cover the cost. >> Do you have suggestions of what we might do to streamline it and still have a similar effect? Well, I mean, one thing we could we

595
02:49:17.120 --> 02:49:33.760
could set a uh you know, a certain amount that uh you know, that doesn't have to come for the board that could just be waved automatically. You know, $300 or whatever amount we might land on just as one way of reducing a number of

596
02:49:33.760 --> 02:49:49.120
these. >> I was thinking more of the policy that Mr. Goldstone had alluded to. >> I'm I'm sorry I stepped out at the very beginning. Was there any discussion between the difference between permanent and project fees versus entertainment fees, special event fees, and how the

597
02:49:49.120 --> 02:50:09.680
board feels about the difference between the two? >> That was more about nonprofit versus events for you know activities that are not >> I mean those those different categories are called out in the policy. Um I I think where we have typically seen

598
02:50:09.680 --> 02:50:27.600
a large number of applications is is with the the special event permit fees or not large but the vast majority of waiver requests that we get are the event permits. If I could just add, so Heather's

599
02:50:27.600 --> 02:50:43.680
absolutely correct. The the number of uh fee waiverss that come before the board that are not special events are pretty small. Um that is where most of the money is, but also I don't know that um you know that it's ripe for change

600
02:50:43.680 --> 02:51:00.319
because the we only wave fees for building projects for 100% affordable housing projects. So, I mean certainly you could revisit that. Um, but it is a, you know, a significant factor for helping to facilitate those projects

601
02:51:00.319 --> 02:51:16.200
that align with, you know, one of the board's top priorities. Um, truly the only other fee waiver that I'm aware of that was not an affordable housing project was the YMCA, >> right? >> And that was not a special event. Right.

602
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>> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Well, we have started the discussion. Um, moving on to uh review and consider a vote to approve minutes of meetings April 6, 2026, April 7, 2026,

603
02:51:31.760 --> 02:51:48.080
and April 13, 2026. Is there a motion? >> Motion to approve. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? I >> I >> uh any select board reports?

604
02:51:48.080 --> 02:52:05.040
Um I did so one it was great to join uh you at the two events as well this member member Brown and member Goldstone the two um cultural council and I thank the board for uh joining me and increasing uh their amount to to $15,000. They had an over 70% increase

605
02:52:05.040 --> 02:52:18.720
in applicants this year and we were able to help fund a number of those um for next year. Um so thank you. Um, I attended a tour uh of a green ADU uh in McCoy uh with a number of people from

606
02:52:18.720 --> 02:52:36.160
EOHLC uh and from the island uh that was kind of the intersect of housing policy and wastewater policy where they use one of those uh comp compostable toilets and that was a very very interesting tour and uh it's a lot cheaper uh and you know there's of course there's lots of

607
02:52:36.160 --> 02:52:51.920
parts of town that we will never be able to sewer just because of how remote they are. Um, so it could be something we continue and I know it's been a discussion in the past with the pilot program too. Um, but it was really fascinating tour good intersect of of housing and environment people. Uh, and

608
02:52:51.920 --> 02:53:08.880
I look forward to collaborating with, you know, partners across the Cape and the islands. Uh, kind of looking this as a solution. Uh, you know, all in total it was a prefab ADU that was put together in two parts and had a compostable toilet and I think it took like literally a month and a half to build um or or less. So, you know,

609
02:53:08.880 --> 02:53:25.359
that's um increasing uh turnaround in time as well as uh a lot cheaper and not a lot of maintenance, which surprised me. Uh you know, this been a stigma against those kind of things. So, it's really fascinating. Um so, maybe something we should consider talking about again as we look at all these wastewater projects.

610
02:53:25.359 --> 02:53:41.840
>> Okay, anyone else? >> Um I recently attended the Cape Coastal Conference and um I was not able to attend uh both days. I think I reported at our last meeting that I'd been there for the first day and our coastal

611
02:53:41.840 --> 02:53:59.760
resilience uh specialist uh Josh Wrigley was going to be presenting the next day. There was also a discussion that day of um a uh I can't remember the right order of words now but planned strategic planned

612
02:53:59.760 --> 02:54:16.399
retreat I believe is the right combination of words. Um that Nantucket is in the early phases of development. um they've done one public webinar and are going to be doing um some other community forums. I was not able to attend the public forum and I'm still

613
02:54:16.399 --> 02:54:33.359
looking for the recording of that to be posted. But it's um something that I think would be really valuable for us to learn about in some way whether that's inviting a presentation um from someone from Nantucket or or otherwise to um hear what what they are doing how they

614
02:54:33.359 --> 02:54:49.439
are engaging the community how they're thinking about funding something like that. Uh I did attend that uh DOT meeting on the north intersection of Route 28A and 151 and you know was informative and uh

615
02:54:49.439 --> 02:55:05.359
it's going to be about a year project and it will likely start next year and um I didn't really hear any negative comments. I was interested to learn. Uh Mary Harris informed me that there had been an informal survey of residents in

616
02:55:05.359 --> 02:55:21.840
the area that I had previously been unaware of and that's where the original idea for the Rotary at that location came from because a lot of people felt like it would slow the traffic and I don't remember actually hearing about that back in the day when we when the select board was not really interested

617
02:55:21.840 --> 02:55:37.680
in that rotary idea. So that was interesting. But it's the intersection is now just going to be improved with the signalized, you know, the uh sensors in the road that if there's no cars there, the light stays green for the other direction. And it'll be improved

618
02:55:37.680 --> 02:55:54.160
that uh when first responder vehicles come, they can change the light. Primarily the fire department, I think, and u there's a lot of uh curb work, but the roadway layout pretty much stays the same. So, it seems like a pretty good

619
02:55:54.160 --> 02:56:10.880
project. >> I know we're um we're going to be seeing Mr. Krisa coming to our uh our next meeting, but uh uh I just want to mention I was at the u Fmouth Chamber of Commerce business after hours event uh

620
02:56:10.880 --> 02:56:28.800
week before last and uh the Steamship Authority was the host of that event and Mr. Krisco was there and I just think it it it certainly is showing an a a a quite different uh mentality uh from the steamship authority uh with respect to

621
02:56:28.800 --> 02:56:45.840
interacting with the town. Uh I think Mr. Mr. Kriscoll was at our the first night of our town meeting. uh he was there uh at at the chamber and I think it's really a good sign going forward that uh that the steamship authority wants to be a uh you know a real part of

622
02:56:45.840 --> 02:57:02.560
the community discussion. So looking forward to >> Yeah. What did he make it to the bike path? Yes, he did. >> Yeah. He he actually had planned to go over to Nantucket. He told me for the daffodil uh event and I told him about our event and he decided to to come to

623
02:57:02.560 --> 02:57:18.399
that one. So looking forward to hearing him on on May 4th. I also attended the Cape Cod uh Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast uh and uh was very happy to uh hear Mr. Waw's presentation

624
02:57:18.399 --> 02:57:33.600
uh as a as a panelist. Uh you know, Falmouth is getting a lot of uh a lot of publicity with respect to what we have done uh with respect to housing and what we are planning to do uh in the future. So Mr. Reno, thank you for for being

625
02:57:33.600 --> 02:57:49.680
there and talking up Falmet's uh uh experience. >> Thank you. >> If I could just mention one more thing, you know, the uh MO meeting I attended last month, we talked about the uh project that Mashby's doing, the shared

626
02:57:49.680 --> 02:58:06.000
use path. It's like $2 million, I think. And that's a tip project. And I asked if they could add a little on to the Felma side because it seems such a shame that that terminates right at a little wooded area only a couple hundred yards from the fairground, which seems like it

627
02:58:06.000 --> 02:58:22.080
would be a pretty good destination. And I hope we can maybe consider a project. I know we just talked about not having more projects, but I would love to see us get a little path to complete that because it looks like it's going to look pretty silly when it's finished. So, I

628
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hope we can think of something there. Okay. >> And then just to on the future agenda items, just because I have my month left, if we could discuss, and this is again related to finance, the tenure or the uh kind of looking at the tenure spending on consultant fees. Um I'll

629
02:58:39.520 --> 02:58:54.960
live if we don't talk about uh some of these. Um but that was one I I would like to talk about uh if possible. Uh as well as uh and again I understand if it doesn't happen but uh I I think a lot this board is all as members has taken a

630
02:58:54.960 --> 02:59:10.479
stance that 40B is not working for our town and I think we should consider writing a letter to our legislators and the governor on that. So I would like to be a part of that if possible. Thank you. >> Think didn't we already agree on that? >> After >> Yeah, we agreed on it but we have to actually >> we have to do it. I'm asking to do it in the next month.

631
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>> Okay. >> Just do everything in the next couple weeks. >> Let's get everything done. >> I would be happy to work with Mr. Richardson on a draft of that. >> All right, then. Entertain a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second.

632
02:59:25.760 --> 03:00:10.880
>> Motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? I. Thank you very much. >> Good, good, good meeting. Thank you. We can start to Hosting services for fctv.org are

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03:01:00.160 --> 03:01:21.760
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>> Felmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board Meetings on FCTV's newest series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at

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03:01:54.560 --> 03:02:07.880
fctv.org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last select board meeting? Ask our hosts by visiting fctv.org/watch org/watchprud.