[Music] [Music] okay um it is six o'clock so uh we will go ahead and get started so uh calling for order the meeting of the Halifax Finance Committee it is April 7th of
2025 uh we are meeting here at town hall this meeting is being recorded by Area 58 committee members in attendance in the room Cheryl Burke Michael Bennett Frank Johnston Bill Smith and myself on Zoom we have Ed Brian and Mike
Rigettto so um we have the agenda that's been announced uh the first item on the agenda is minutes and minutes approval we don't have any minutes in front of it for uh this meeting to review or approve so we will bypass that specific agenda item um at which time we will move to
the second one the second item on the agenda is the review of the town meeting warrant and Cody sent this out to the group earlier today if you've had an opportunity to have a look at it um uh please have your questions ready but we are going to turn the meeting over to Cody so that he can go through it with
us now all right one minute i'll share my screen so I can see Charl's still printing democratic service in progress for a second i'm just going to start going through i'm going have to restart my computer
here i'm not sure what's going on all right so I'll share that as soon as my computer restarts but um so you see we have a total of 31 articles technically on the warrant this year uh initially we were anticipating a special town meeting
but I do not see we don't have anything that would uh require a special town meeting so we will not need that at this point um in the uh attachment sent out to the committee was the draft of that letter that the finance committee puts together um if
you have any suggestions edits or anything on that we can certainly discuss that at some point and Jim has it as well but we can review that um getting into the articles so article one is our typical um article here in act
reports of town officers committees this is kind of one of those articles that the town has always done this the reason for this was prior to printed town reports a really long time ago um basically what would happen is you'd actually have boards committees departments would actually get up and
give their annual report at the annual town meeting palifax has always kept it on just to give her an opportunity if someone wants to get up from a a board committee or whatever so that's that's pretty typical um article two is the wage and personnel bylaw um replacement
and amendments that you had previously discussed with the board selectman so the 2% uh we broke them out into different aspects this year we got that feedback from the community from last year that we group them all together so right um separated them this year to
three different uh pieces basically which is the 2% cost of living adjustment removed the veteran services offer officer from a stipen position to a grade six and then replace the current wage and personnel bylaw with and we put the whole text of that in the
bylaw um and it's pretty it's pretty simple but that's the idea was simplifying that that language in there so I guess do you want me to go one by one then you guys can decide if you want to make recommend four against or wait
till time meeting or do you want me to run through each and then come back or do you want to I just assume we recommend as many as we can if there's something that we're kind of on the fence on something anybody has
any questions we can stop and discuss it yeah yeah oh absolutely so do you want to go my article then you discuss it yeah all right so article one is just the hearing report right right so that's one that you want to
recommend if someone wants to make a motion to recommend and then second and then you'll have to do roll call because you have Okay um so uh to recommend article one roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yep frank Johnston yes article one ed
yes bill Smith yes mike Retta yes and I'm a yes as well article one is approved good article two is the wag and personnel bylaw components
my only question with that is do we want to keep do we want to take C out and make it its own article um well the the issue is our town meeting bylaw specifies that articles one through four go together and they're
fixed into those articles okay so we so we we've historically put it as one article although they can be taken up independently so if somebody says I want to move portions A and B okay like the budget right we do line by line you do you do this article separately that way
there if there were a component like C that maybe there was concerns about you could still pass A and B and then do C separately okay all right anybody have any questions comments on article two
i have a motion to approve article two for town one second thank you cheryl Burke roll call yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes article two ed Bryan yes
bill Smith yes mike Rigetta yes any guesses thank you all right article three is the uh salaries of elected officials so moderator selectmen and assessors are go
stipened elected you know moderator obviously is self-explanatory and assessors and town clerk um and then we have the town clerk which again this would bring her up to that step one the grade where she should be um treasurer
collector puts her on that scale and these are all um include the 2% cola as voted by a wage personnel as well so it factors all that in um the only one that is not in the line is the highway surveyor he did not want to be um on the
same scale he only wanted he he only requested a flat 2% and he was against um more so we honored his request for the flat 2% okay any comments or questions can I have a motion to approve
article 3 so approve so move second very good roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes article three ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike Reignetta yes and I am a yes as well all
right i'm going to try to make the switch to the screen there so while I do this article 4 obviously the figures aren't updated in the warrant yet but it's the um what you would voted on last last week recommended budget there so I guess now
is a good opportunity if there and Lindsay did an excellent job of addressing anything but if there's anything that's come up since then or any questions that were not addressed regarding the operating budget in that recommended column now would be a good time to ask those
no questions the numbers are all the same yeah we haven't changed since last week right exactly anybody have any questions on the operating budget motion to approve the operating budget
move second roll call vote cheryl yes mark Bennett yes frank Johnson yes article four ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike yes
as well the operating budget is approved are we going to article five here it comes cody [Music] look at that technology [Laughter]
all right everyone can see that yep please okay so um article five is something a little bit um different this year so so article five is usually sets the limits of our revolving funds but we actually
need to create a couple of new a few new revolving funds in order to do that we have a bylaw that lists our revolving funds so article 5 effectively amends by our general bylaw 233 subsection 5 and adds these three revolving funds two of
them were at the request of the elementary school um and then another one was one that actually should have been done last year for park maintenance the idea is that that is any park fees that are collected can be used right within that revolving fund to to selfund kind of the operations and maintenance
at the park um the other two from the schools they're not planning to necessarily implement these but they requested that they be created in case they were looking to implement busing fees or full day kindergarten fees um so they still request those
so the two school ones they want to have a revolving fund in case they go to a busing fee schedule but they didn't include that in their budget they do not plan to do it this year the idea was that they just want it there in case
they have to do it in future years um I confirmed just recently that they still wanted these and I was told that they did all it just creates the account effectively and that way there if there were an issue at some point where they wanted to implement the fees it's effectively a policy decision to the
school committee to implement the fees we would just then have the financial uh practice policy in place to see it through that we're not funding no nope all this does is creates the accounts so these are the money in there yep so
that's just a So we're required to um put the maximum amounts annually so we So So this just creates the accounts creates the maximums and then article six um I'm sorry article seven will actually set the limits which we do
every year we have to set the limits of every evolving month every year this just creates adds those three new accounts and these are the columns that we have for every account within that bylaw i'm just concerned why the school wants to put these in place this year when they said they weren't going to do these
two things specifically when they were presenting their budgets and if potentially next year they're going to charge for busing or kindergarten let's say why don't they submit it at that time i think it's just trying to get things in place i don't see a negative to to
doing this well I mean it's got to be done at town meetings so they'd have to wait if they want to do it next year they got to wait till the end of the year and then you know so it doesn't really help them out so just getting it just setting it all up it's really all they're doing
i'm just concerned that once the budget season starts for the schools they go ahead and implement a busing fee and a kindergarten fee when in reality we've already approved those numbers within their budgets for the current future
operating year of fiscal year 26 that's that's not where I'm at so I mean nothing would so even if you didn't move forward with this they ne they wouldn't necessarily be stopped from implementing those fees if they wanted to anyways it just logistically
becomes a challenge for us on the accounting side of it yeah so how does that work as far as they collect money for that and there's no account in place where does that money go at that point goes into the general fund the town's general fund yep yeah they're they're part of the town's all their accounting
is through us i think it's a positive for as we think ahead to budget cycle for FY27 having some of this information already out there in advance um to Cody's point nothing's going to it right now it's just creating the accounts so that they exist um so for future planning I think
it's a good thing i understand going for the future but it also allows them to implement it in this budget year that we're currently working on it doesn't stop them stop right
but they can't they can't use funds that they don't have though well they could I guess the point Frank's trying to make is they could then implement the fee right for busing and start collecting for it and start collecting for it in FY26 because now
they have an account to put money in yes got you that's I'm just if if they're actually thinking about seriously doing something like this you should tie it to the fiscal year that they're going to want
to implement the fee schedules the in speaking with the administration one of the reasons that they wanted to keep it on was obviously if if they needed to rely on this next year or a future year you're going into the budget with even
more unknowns because if you've budgeted so let's say I'm throwing numbers out there that have no merit i'm just throwing so let's say um they plan on $10,000 is going to come in for busing fees and they they then plan okay we're going to charge $10,000 a year and
that's 10,000 we can use towards our budget let's say next year then not only do they have to what if this doesn't pass at town meeting right because it's not proactively been created so now they've gone into their budget cycle
with the unknown of is this account it's a policy decision of the school committee whether to charge for the fee or not but is the but the account obviously is a town meeting decision it just it add it adds an unknown to to the fiscal year if they
ever were to have to implement this so Cody is it too is it would it be too late to add something to this particular article that just says you know accounts um will not be used until FY27 or not to be used until FY27 or is it too late to
do anything like that um the the only concern potentially would be the these were voted on by the school committee and technically would be changing i I guess I don't know if they used I don't think they've used
particular language of the accounts will only be used starting in FY27 so it it just could create a challenge where technically we weren't putting what they voted on in the warrant if that makes sense yeah they've approved it as it's written
the other thing that I'm reading here on the busing is fee to provide busing for Halifax Elementary School beyond requirements yeah key word there is beyond requirements yeah we're legally obligated to provide transportation for
for potentially charge for a fee for beyond the requirements that we're supposed to meet mhm why didn't they just put FY27 so so just to be clear this is I created this i was given the information from
the schools i created the warrant this is something that I created to match our current um chart that's in the bylaws um but there's no money in these accounts but it's money so you have money as No
that just you have to set the maximums so restrictions conditions or expenses payable from my account so every account has a maximum restriction basically so why doesn't it say just maximum it looks like we've already put money in there i didn't create the chart this is the
chart within our Bible i'm just saying there's a lot of things that probably should be clearer um but you know this is those those headings are directly from that chart and I just filled in you know the I mean you could so if if if you're if
the committee's concern is that of what Frank is saying you you could recommend this and then when you get to article 7 recommend a zero amount for FY26 right because this just creates the account
allows it to be created that that's it if you want to make sure it's not utilized in FY26 recommend a zero and then that puts the maximum amount to be spent out of that account as zero so then they're not going to create an account if you can't
spend anything out of it that's the whole point right the next year we up it to Yeah and then but at least it's created so all you're doing is setting a max i'm comfortable like that yeah that makes more sense okay okay all right so we have to vote on
them separately though okay yes article five is one article and then the others okay right and park maintenance is anticipating a $20,000 um collection of fees this year i don't think it'll be that high no that's just
we we put that as a buffer just in case we bring in you know more money than we anticipated a lot and and honestly a lot of it has to do with um is it go is this whole uh personal
watercraft right is that going is that going to be a portion right if that's if that's applicable and then there's some other fees applicable we might get her up to around that 20 if it's not it'll certainly be a lot less than that right but we're trying to plan if it
worked Okay okay any other questions on article five no I think I'm good that satisfied me that's a good point Frank thanks for bringing it up okay motion to approve uh article five so move second very good
roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes on article five ed Bryan yes yes thank you sir bill Smith yes mike Reignetta yes thank you and I'm a
yes as well article five is recommended so article six this is another annual article um this is for our reserve fund for our general fund and also for our water department reserve fund um the the the motion will be different this year
we've historically always so two parts to this um there's we're increasing it this year we've always sort of thought only 75,000 for the general fund we got to increase that 75,000 just doesn't cut it anymore so and hopefully we increase it a little more next year too which
probably should be up around 150 to be honest um but 100 this year the idea is to fund part of it with uh free cash uh and then the water department is funded with their retained
earnings so the water department's funding with 50,000 50,000 yep so we're keep the 50 for water and um is funding with another 50 or 100,000 so it's 150 total 150 total correct yeah
okay any questions all fine with that all right motion for article six so move second very good thank you roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes article six you ed Brian
yes bill Smith yes mike Retta yes and I'm a yes as well motion article six is recommended okay article seven involving accounts so this sets the limits the
annual limits for each revolving cow um what what I'll do is I will reach out to the school administration so the board select hasn't approved this yet they're approving it tomorrow i anticipate them approving everything um I'll see
tomorrow if they're amendable to just changing it to a zero limit because they never said anything about creating a limit for this year i automatically put it in because typically if you have an account you set limit so as long as they that's their understanding we'll remove
it completely and post two at least okay so I don't know if we can approve that if it's not going to be zero yeah so I think that this is a good one you can say finance committee recommend okay we'll do that at the town meeting and is
the Why does the building inspector have a $100,000 limit oh yeah this isn't for the building inspector this is for our uh part-time it falls under the inspector but it's for our part-time inspectors so plumbing
gas uh uh plumbing gas wiring inspectors so the way our system works is we don't pay them like an hourly rate uh we have it so uh let's say there's a permit fee of they get a percentage of the permit fee so we have a revolving account set
up so whatever comes in 65% goes out to the the inspector and then we keep the remaining portion so it again it's one of those things we usually aren't at 100 but if we have a big permitting year right we have to be able to pay our quite a bit going on right now or
getting ready to go on yeah and we're looking at we're actually going to implement some um separate policies for some of these bigger projects because the town you know the town has always had smaller projects so the percentage has worked um but you know for some of these larger
projects it probably shouldn't be percentage based it really should just be flat fee per inspection or something like that so we're working um with our building commission yeah these three good size commercial projects get really going on
jim yeah I'm fine with that it's a revolving account for multiple inspectors correct that's how I understand that parttime inspector parttime inspectors third party inspectors right right yep so all of our
part-time it's it's uh plumbing and gas wiring inspectors yeah but they're third party inspectors they're not town inspectors no they're not employees of the tenant they're not our technically they're not our more like a contractor yeah right they're but they're they are technically like it's not someone we
hire like a company to come in and do it they're technically appointed as our inspectors and but they don't fall under they're not benefited or anything so are they 1099 employees or what's that point well it depends
certain ones are appointed by the board of selectman some are appointed by the building commissioner so they invoice to town and get paid we have a Yeah we correct based on percentage okay this is it's always been that way
okay so we're going to vote on that at town meeting right okay and so you can even vote prior to town meeting they'll just provide you a recommendation after that meeting as long as you have any information that you need um you can vote prior to um articles 8 through 12
are the acceptance of those streets i think you guys were at the public hearing um again just trying to get we have a ridiculous amount of unaccepted streets [Music] um and just trying to get these particularly the ones that are in good
shape where we can accept them uh trying to get them accepted where we're a lot of them were not necessarily maintaining but were plowing them and stuff anyways we we had some uh occurrences over this past winter where a lot of the people were upset with um part you know some of
the way the street was plowed or whatever and then it turned out they're not even accepted streets we actually shouldn't even be plowing right so we do it as a public safety thing in case there's a fire or ambulance or police need to get down there that's That's why we plow them but um it's good
if they're in good shape it's good to get them and then we at least get some uh some chapter 90 funding too how many road miles is in total i'm not sure it's not that you know how much you're going to give chapter it's not a lot but again if we're if we're already kind
of bearing some of the cost we might as well and and un not that it's the town's responsibility but unfortunately most people don't know that they're buying a house on a private road when they buy a home and then they once they come in and something happens and they call the town and say "Hey can you come fill this
ball?" We go "No we can't property we literally cannot." Yeah um Steve had said that some of them have drainage systems that need to be maintained annually now as part of our
storm water management program there's additional costs for that and hopefully has that been accounted for in the highway budget numbers um I I I think you should have enough flexibility in there okay okay so are we voting on these as a
group through 12 you can as long as your if your vote would be the same you can vote them together if there's a particular concern with one or or anything then you could do them separately but you know I drove down a couple of these and they look fine to me okay you know
we should accept them i personally will accept them yes because two reasons one they looked okay two we as a taxpayer if I lived on that street and I'm paying taxes I'm not getting service that's a problem right and we're already doing
emergency types of work on them anyhow with with the weather so we may as well have more control over them from a liability standpoint and the premise for Steve nominating these roads was that they weren't in bad shape right right they were in reasonably good shape quick fix and they
were okay so Right yeah so that should be okay anybody okay so I'll make a motion for articles 8 through 12 acceptance of Horn Drive Christmas Tree
Lane Dancing Lane Heron Road and RERS Rider's Way as um as a stopless way to the town second okay very good roll call vote
cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike Reign yes and I am a yes as well so we will recommend those
to the those articles for the warrant article 13 this is uh cleaning up article so for those of you that were on the committee in fiscal 23 um go back a few years right the
Massachusetts Attorney General reached some uh settlements with several of the pharmaceutical companies opioid settlement funds um prior to fiscal 24 the um finance laws in the state required that unless
there were a specific approved purpose the money has to go into the general fund unless you create a separate account at town meeting in fiscal 23 at this time meeting or yeah May of 2023 we what we did is in article 1718 we
created a spe special purpose stabilization fund an opioid stabilization fund and then we funded it with all the money that we had gotten so far in fiscal 23 with the opioid fund which is 32,9114 in fiscal 20 um so we did that
actually too soon the money should have fallen to free cash first and then we should have appropriated it so the state rejected that article and we submitted it and then in fiscal 24 the law changed where they allowed what's called a special
uh special purpose um fund and that allows the money because it's a special purpose the opioids is now a special purpose fund so the money automatically can come in get put right into that account and they can get appropriated with the board of selections
approval you don't so you don't need a stabilization fund anymore to put the money aside basically is what it comes down to prior to that law change you did hence why we had to go through this it's a lot cleaner not having to do it this way because not only we create not creating a stabilization fund
stabilization funds are prior 2/3 so anytime we'd want to spend something um it would have to go through town meeting things may come up mid year you're not talking a ton of money but you're talking some um where there may be an opportunity for the town to use some of its opioid settlement funds and if we haven't gone through town meeting with
this portion we we can't do anything with it so it's really cleaning it up and putting it with the rest of our other opioid funds um and then hopefully we can start to utilize it so that fund the opioid special reserve fund isn't supposed to be specifically
used for addiction issues whether it's through training or material supplies or things of that nature is that correct that's it has to be used for those committee we are we actually just put one together we're meeting uh later this month to to start throwing out some
ideas and then make some presentations probably the start of the next fiscal year to the select board so we haven't spent any of the money that we received and part of it is you see reports on this right oh towns aren't utilizing it yes a big part of it
is because of this right here this law that made it very difficult for us to utilize right where you know you you prior to that law change you had to not only account for it but you had to get approval of town meeting to spend any of it and things come up in here right uh
that you may want to utilize it for so it was difficult particularly towns like us where it's not you know it's some money but it's not enough to hire a position for multiple years or something like that the cities are taking in a lot of money where they can do that so it's a little bit easier um or if you have a city council right you don't need time
council can just go on there um what committee is being formed for this so we have an internal group uh board of health fire department police department um myself uh COA no citizens at large not at this point
no well they choose to put like those next lock boxes all over the town with like Walmart playground town hall access is that what Hallbrook has done with their money
yeah there's a lot of things up there the um the Plymouth County uh sheriff's department is running a program where basically a town can can elect to defer x amount to the sheriff's uh to to the prison there and then they can use it as
the kind of like release programs for Halifax residents for instance so if we said "Here's $10,000," they have a system where they'll oversee it and and maybe utilize some for transportation for a recently released individual with you know previous addiction for um treat
you know any sort of outpatient treatment or um job or they need transportation housing some first-time housing expenses so that's just an example well not we are going to use for that but is that an example of something that
Brook did with their money no they didn't get the boxes so they just did the boxes yeah the committee meets once a month and they go over ideas is that how they're going to disperse the money they do training too i was going to say training and where's the training with
the schools the students or you can do training at the schools you can do training community trainings community training is this like a dare program or something how to use the Nan those boxes are very handy you just put them up and what do they have the narcan in them
nan if you go in the kitchen we have one in there now actually do you is there a shelf life on those bills i mean I can expire use it yeah well yeah adapter and you use it every probably is I don't
know exactly it's like two or three years or something like that natural [Music] expos playgrounds all over the place did does this money also support the fire department carrying the Narcan kids or
is that something that's through their own budgets or can this money be used for that fire department the state has a whole list of things now that you can utilize it for one of the nice things about it about is you're starting to see okay these are
allowed uses because when it first came out nobody knew what can actually be used um so there's a lot of but but again the this is not determining how we're spending it or anything this is simply cleaning it up and making and getting it into the accurate account um
for the further approval by the selector very good any further discussion on article 13 no no a motion to recommend so move second thank you roll call vote cheryl yes michael Bennett yes frank
Johnston yes on article 13 thank you sir ed Bryant yes sir thank you Bill Smith yes mike Retta yes and I'm a yes as well so that is recommended uh next is the funding of the FY26
capital plan so obviously the capital planning committee met um and the list was a little bit more expansive than this but um as you know free cash is being utilized for the operating budget this year so we remove those items at
the of the selectman um so this leaves the what's here um our inspection the assessing department this is a a requirement from the department of revenue um that it be done uh fire department gear and rescue tools um the
gear gets us on the cycle as the chief had mentioned to you guys last year it also has a a few uh we took we took some gear out of his operating budget just to clear some money up um so if he has new hires there's a couple of sets of gear in here for that as well
um firearms are due we're 10 years old so need to get new firearms for our uh police department uh typically we do two cruisers but that was one of the things that was slashed from the capital plan so we're only doing one cruiser this year um library window replacement uh at
two town meetings ago so May of 23 there was money appropriated for the windows um we finally got the engineering plan completed and it's going to cost us a little less than 20 more but we added the buffer just in case we the last thing we want to do is be in the same situation uh road maintenance we do
300,000 annually storm water management again this this was in the operating budget but it's capital related to storm water management so it makes sense to put it under the capital plan and again also freed up a little bit of cash in our operating budget um but it makes sense here um in the water department uh
the water treatment plant upgrades this is a payment toward basically that debt um to pay down that that band um short-term borrow we have uh retained earnings are well over a million so this is this is kind of the right move here there was another item they were looking to do some sort of carport over at the
water department in speaking with them apparently they there was miscommunication between our facilities and water department and they don't seem ready to do that so we took it off okay so we're going to stay with those um canopy tents they're using i guess that's what you could call them yeah
yeah um regarding um the uh firearms replacement the guns that are being replaced the sidearms um what happens to them they're traded in
traded you do get a trade do you get any money for those oh yeah oh yeah that's why this is only 15,000 i was going to say yeah it's 15,000 yeah yeah so they're so they have a value outside of um law enforcement yeah and this will replace each officer will
get a new new service revolver correct no not revolvers anymore yeah okay what about their long guns is that included in the number not that price no so what you're saying is 15,000 is a
good deal oh yeah okay it's a great deal okay that's the only question I had on here anyone else have any questions on the capital plan okay motion to recommend the capital plan so move second thank you roll call
vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes on the capital sir ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike Reign yes yes as
well that bill is expressed article 15 is an amendment to our general bylaws the town meeting bylaw so we actually have a bylaw that governs how town meeting operates um in kind of just being here the past couple years there were a couple small things that I
recommended to the board and the board kind of had asked that we update the first is loc so right now so the changes are highlighted uh I'm sorry they're atalicized and underlined the changes and if there's anything we struck out there's a strike mark through it so the
first changes in 471 we added and location of meeting and the reason is um you all saw at our December town meeting the the pure volume which is we really don't have a place to house that many
individuals um and the way that Massachusetts general law is town meeting actually has to be held within the confines of your community unless you have a bylaw that allows otherwise our bylaw did not allow other otherwise at this point so just trying to be proactive in case this were to happen
again naturally our next the next available spot would be the high school middle school um so this would just allow the board of stock to to make that determination in the future um the next one is just uh it's a town administrator that's the
former title the position executive administrator so just cleaning that up um and then rules of practice again this is something um we we've really we use town meeting times in recent history that's that's what governs town meeting in Massachusetts robert's rules is is
not specific to town meeting it actually is just specific to parliamentarian procedures where town meeting times is how most moderators run town meeting because it's very specific you can look things up so this was something that the board had brought to my attention when I first started um because they needed to
update that to match really current practice hey Cody just a quick question on this on this one if um if we did have to go to middle school or high school is there a fee associated with having to do that move um no there is not we would just have to
provide a certificate of insurance which our insurance company would provide you weren't here you did collection too you weren't here though during co we have to do collection if there were additional staffing EJ like as a result um over at the schools
we would have to you know pay whatever that staffing would be but the simple utilization of the of the buildings we would not uh you know have to pay for okay great thank you any further discussion on article 15 okay a motion to recommend article 15 so
move second thank you roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes on article 15 ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike Detta yes and I am a
yes as well as recommended article 16 this is um an annual article the town does it's it's $3,500 to support the um South Coastal County Legal Services they provide uh free legal services to uh individuals in
Halifax and civil matters for elderly low-inccome makes sense to me yeah for very worthy cause any discussion on article 16 no motion to recommend article 16 second you roll call vote
cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnson yes or article 16 ed Brian yes bill Smith yes mike Mcdana yes i'm a yes as well article 16 is
recommended article 17 is a prior year bills article um so we I know of at least one from the schools they It's like I think a little over $4,000 from fiscal 24 uh that came up um the reason that it's written this
way is just in case something comes up between now and then we can it's covered basically and then it'll just be in the motion to pay X bill for the school department and the amount of X and and where it's going to be funded from so prior bills require
any landmines you know of I don't think we're going to have anything on our side um like I said I just the schools had emailed me about a month ago letting me know they got a bill in um MY24 correct i think it's 4,500 give or take
very common for vendors to like you know bill in July after school has ended oh yeah not uncommon well interesting i would never pay vendors if they after my fiscal year
six weeks i came six weeks jim's law or No that was my company's law my company there are laws on the book there are laws on that or something i don't know i worked for the because I used to operate that same way Jim and I got brought to
the car but I never had that okay article 17 any discussion all right motion to recommend move second very good roll call cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes
on article 17 ed Bryan yes bill Smith yes mike Retta yes i'm a yes as well article 17 is recommended article 18 is another one of these annual articles um $3,500 this one
is in support of Southshore Resource and Advocacy Center um they provide support in intervention services for domestic violence another very worthy cause i all favored it anybody i'll make a
motion on it for article 18 second second okay roll call vote cheryl yes mike yes frank Johnston yes on article 18 ed Bryan yes
bill Smith yes mikeetta yes and I am a yes as well article 18 is recommended article 19 another one of those annual articles um $150 for um the county cooperative extension service this is basically the 4 allows the town to
participate in the 4 um programs do we I don't know okay okay any questions or discussion on article 19 no motion to recommend so move
second go ahead thank you no worries roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes article 19 ed Brian yes bill Smith yes mike Retta yes
and I'm a yes as well article 19 is recommended very good article 20 is um uh an addition to our general bylaws an anti-littering bylaw this was requested by the board of selectment and the beautifification committee basically
just puts a little bit more teeth in our general bylaws for non-littering uh I'm sorry for littering and sets violations fine at $300 for a violation um allows the police department and our health agent to enforce um
the health agent can issue citations under this yes because it's a general bylaw this isn't the master like the police right the law where you can the police can issue a citation this would be in addition to you know this is a
general bylaw within the town this was modeled after another community in Massachusetts road deposit sweep or abandon upon any public way that's a list not limited to trash refuge rubbish
garbage it's like it's a source so this has to be witnessed by whoever is issuing the citation yes yeah i mean they'd have to prove that you did it thought they found a bag of trash on the side of the road with your
electric bill in there your name i guess that would qualify under this unless you threw it in the truck with someone else and they threw it out on the name of the bag yeah but you didn't throw it on the road and if you didn't witness me throwing it on the road how are you
gonna write me a ticket for it hey just Cody just question um are we required by any type of law if we pass this to do additional signage or anything like that across the town notifying that we
are there's fines that are associated with littering just wondering we would we would um there is no necessarily necessarily not necessarily a requirement that we do it we would I mean this is already illegal so so if you're doing these things the police already have an enforcement mechanism
this just goes a step further in our general bylaws but this is already illegal if you do any of this right right yeah there's an MJL for it there is yep yeah there's a mass general alone denner's prison yeah there you have it
okay any further discussion on article 20 motion to recommend article 20 so second thank you roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes
on article 20 ed Bryan yes sir bill Smith yes mike Reign yes and I'm a yes as well so article 21 is the zoning bylaw amendments i can't recall if if the
finance committee in Halifax um and you'll look back provides recommendations um and zoning bylaws i know the planning board is required to um and obviously it's proposed by the board of selectmen regardless I'd recommend that if if the if the board does the finance committee does provide
a recommendation at town meeting I can't imagine anyone's seen all the changes um our goal was to try to include them in the warrant all the updates but when I put them in last week it would have put our warrant up 200 pages um and I don't
think we have an appetite for a 200page warrant probably cost us $30 to $50,000 to get nailed out and present to everybody oh yeah so we're likely going to do an attachment um QR code get and then you know and then if someone wants a copy we'll probably print it for them
if they want to come in but just to send out 3,500 copies of a 200page document a lot of people unfortunately take a look at it so this one I'd say you hold off on um and if you do provide a recommendation provide that
article 22 this is an item that the board of select had requested it's a proclamation um to the state basically on the town stance on MBTA zoning um so this was drafted and approved at the last board meeting this is what uh
Luckman Bruno read correct correct did any did somebody requested changes or suggested changes some of the wording uh no the the there was some members of the public that that didn't like
seeing it right but the board did vote on it questions on article 22 um what's our stake in voting for this or approving recommending um
I think we make no recommendation that's my opinion yeah really at this point in time there's no financial impact with the exception of litigation I guess correct right but there's been a couple of years where we've had no recommendation and people get a little
testy over it they don't like they want us to have an opinion on everything but it has to fit into our Well I would think i don't think there's any financial this this article has no financial impact no not at all so I don't I don't know what
plate we have there it kind of does and it kind of doesn't there's ways to stretch it that it it's elastic enough to say if you have to spend attorney's fees then there's a financial impact right turning to the article itself though is just the proclamation right so to my
point there's really no financial impact on the article itself you're just saying do you want to make this an official town of Halifax proclamation and send it off to the state in a stance against MBTA zoning whether you do that or not will certainly there's no financial
impact of that so we could have no recommendation yeah there could be a financial impact of the law itself but you sending of the town sending this proclamation or not there's no doesn't invoke that maybe cost us a couple cents to print it if we want to mail it that's the only
financial thoughts i would say recommend to have no recommendation better than a real impact i'll second that if that's your motion that'll be my motion i'll second it so the motion on the floor and that's been
seconded is to have no recommendation on article 22 so can I get roll call vote Cheryl yeah that's my vote okay mike Bennett yes frank Johnson yes start article 22
bill recommendation ed Brian yes bill Smith yes mike Reign mike who's away from Mike is away from his death missing am I
well we'll hold that as an abstension then um I am miss also a um recommendation of no recommendation 22 all right so yep now we get into the
citizens petitions um so you see we have a number of those this time meeting um I'll give you as much information I have some of them I have as much information as you when you read it um I can also advise that in speaking with legal
counsel several of these are not legal uh several of these as written would have no legal bearing it would not do anything but um law requires that they have met the certification requirements we have to put it on the warrant as written um so this this first one is uh
proposed by Alan Diaz and 13 others um to basically allow authorize the board of selectman to sell two lots of land um on B on Vernon Street off of Snow Street for a sum of money not less than $500 plus legal fees okay this is going to
get a lot of questions for me cody Butter yeah Alan Diaz there's the F he's also head of the conservation committee and how do we come to the sum of $500 so it's at least 500 so the board would
determine an amount no less than no less than 500 what does the town currently do with the two lots nothing they're they're vacant they were taken as part of tax title how big are they they're very small i don't have the exact 5,000 ft i think that if we're
going to sell them so we are in the process of a lot of our other properties getting um auction together we're going to we're going to try to do kind of a big auction have an auctioneer come to town and auction them all off but again this is a petitioned article so it has to be on right i'll agree that that
should be the fair way to go with it um concerns of selling it to somebody that's in a butter to the property and nobody else in the town can bid on the property as written it does say two in a bar yes it's not
like it's up for public sale right no that would be correct as written I would say no i'm not very no with Yeah wanting to go to auction right right exactly yeah we did if we've got a plan in place for additional properties and we have a
couple days of sales or vice versa it allows the opportunity for other people to come in and um potentially gain additional funding that way to cover hopefully the cost of the property taxes at least on Are things supposed to be
auctioned if they're over $15,000 in value um I don't there is a threshold the threshold changes every year there's a lander low value in Massachusetts so I don't know what the threshold is for each year but whatever that threshold is
um the this law is legitimate if Tom meeting approves it so the law you know speaking with council the law um exists sure well I just feel that if we're putting an auction together right throw
it all in yeah cigar because we could probably get more than $500 exactly this does have a to me has financial impact on the town and I feel it's something that we should either recommend or not recommend and it behooves us to get the
most money that we can get for the land to help the town general absolutely yeah so that's how I see that's I'd make that motion that we say no okay so this is a not recommend not recommend okay no you're making a motion to sir not recommend article 23 is there a second
second okay roll call vote cheryl not to recommend mike Bennett yes frank Johnston not to recommend article 23 by the finance committee correct ed Brian yes
to not recommend very good bill Smith yes to not recommend mike Mcetta yes to not recommend i am a yes to not recommend article 23 said the finance committee does not recommend article 23 okay article 24 was
a zoning petition to see if the time will vote to allow body art establishments also known as tattoo studios as permitted as a permitted use in commercial zonings again is there another zoning one um planning board's having a public hearing on it later this month uh in addition to
the other zoning um articles when we did the bylaw review I know we talked about tattoo parlors did we have them in commercial or were they in industrial they were in industrial they were
out of town so in most of the zoning bylaw stuff you may recall we didn't change necessarily zoning as much as clean things up make it easier um they really weren't zoning changes per se where things were allowed um you really didn't touch much of that
so by the chart it's in the industrial not actually in commercial then right now yes and they want to put this in commercial yep so so basically tattoo parlors would fall under commercial you being allowed to be in
commercial all body art establishments not just one somebody wants to come in and put in no this would change the zoning so it would be you know whoever you So we can't necessarily say just one that's not a top meeting um the
zoning doesn't isn't specific to establishments such as change of zoning so this this says that the planning board needs to make this recommendation this is one of those zoning ones so if you were to make a if if the committee were want to make a recommendation I'd
say do it at time similar to the other zoning bylaws if you do it but I I can't recall if the if the finance committee has historically provided recommendations right zoning yeah I don't like permitting or anything like that 18 years
we'll hold that for um article 25 uh vague in nature um the residents of Halifax and so again you'll notice some of these are written um uniquely and that's because it's exactly
what the petition said so we're obligated to to provide that as written this um asked for an audit of town departments committees assets liabilities to u recommendations to provoke financial recordkeeping processes and enhance the town's overall financial uh stability and then there's
some language there about trust um allocating local tax revenues i'll note town meeting allocates uh tax revenues not elected local officials town meeting right town meeting sets the budget so um that's one thing to to to note there we get audited every year we go through an
annual financial audit um all of our we're currently going through fiscal 24s now all of our prior audits are on our website um we also recently underwent uh Department of Revenue Financial Management Review you guys have seen that there's several recommendations in there right we've done a lot of the
things that I'm giving you but a lot of them are big picture kind of form of government um that aren't able to be done at operational level but and and this is also um I don't understand the last sentence
still needs this to have longevity should you do this at home we need to do it um the other the other um component again where the concern is um there's no
funding source so who who who conducts the audit what's the funding source these things aren't free um is it an internal audit do they do they want me to conduct the audit do they want you like what they do yeah but if we're already getting external audits right we
have we we have to go through manual right yeah exactly yeah so just just real quick fun fundamentally I I agree with this but I think there are there are just so many gaps in how it's written that it's hard to approve it as
it's written i I think what it's driving at is you know we go through an annual financial audit which is great but there's also audit firms out there that can come in and analyze process and policy and things like that which is extremely helpful for all of us not only
the community but it helps us as committees and and um boards be able to do our jobs more effectively so I I think the idea of doing a a thorough audit on the town is a great idea i just
don't think that the way this article is written is set to really achieve what would benefit all of us if that makes sense and to Cody's last point where are the funds coming from to do this and even on top of that there's no indication in the article as to when
this audit should take place so I I just think there's a lot of a lot of areas where they need to be more specific in what we're trying to do even though conceptually to me it sounds like a good idea we don't know what it would cost to do
an audit as written right it's not even time it's not like you know for the last year for the last five years we don't know what it cost to do you do we also did so the the department of revenue audit that we did last year kind
of accomplished exactly this it looked at all of our processes procedures you know particularly regarding finance and administration but it did all that prepared a very thorough report with recommendations right um that didn't cost us anything because the department of revenue did it but beyond that I I I
don't know i don't know what exactly like EJ said without more partic you know particular information i don't even know how we'd solicit bids for something like this because I don't know what the scope would be okay yeah i don't think we can recommend this because it's just way too vaguely written
it doesn't give enough specifics enough information that we can't really recommend this as a great idea well going to cost us more money that we don't have yes right well it's going to do that too yeah it's an additional expense but do we really need it where we already get an audit every year an
external audit and then we have the DOI audit which you know I mean so there's a couple that go on every year so do we really need a third one is it really going to improve anything is it really going to help anything i don't think so
i I I think that this something that should be sprinkled into some type of cycle where it's done once every 10 years or something like that once every five years we have an external firm come in and do this because they do they look at it is a it is a much more holistic view of how the the town government is
working um you know you're you're going to get results from an audit like this that are not typical to the other two audits that we're referring to um there's no question about that um but again it's not it's it's got to be more thought out
than this though in order for it to be effective okay so I move that we vote no we we not okay does that have the motion does that article 25 second very good roll call
vote cheryl no mike Bennett not to recommend ran Johnson not recommend article 25 ed Brian yes do not recommend as written very good bill Smith do not recommend
yes mike Regetta vote to not recommend yes sir and I am a not recommend on article 25 so okay article 26 um the gist of it from
my understanding is they're looking for an impact study of the proposed MBTA zoning uh mandate and and then once that impact impact study is done to submit to the state auditor for a unfunded mandate
determination um again no no funding source here um if if you were to you know bring in an external consultant to back up the data so Cody I I I got confused by this one
can you are you able to clarify this um yeah what what I guess so my my again my understanding of this is um they in in they would they would like the
finance committee or um somebody hired by the finance committee to conduct um it does do some um to conduct uh an a a financial impact study of the
um potential potial cost of the the zoning change if it were to be passed on Halifax um you know in speaking with council the a few of the concerns of this are
um it's it's you're you're probably not going a it's going to be costly right so we need a funding source um but the other thing is it's probably not going to be the best information and the reason that I say that is um it's not like you have a
proposed development in front of you where you can bring it to somebody who does these and say "Provide us with an economic impact study." That that happens municipalities do that you know a developer is proposing to build 150 apartments you know 25 of them
are three bedrooms X are two bedrooms X or one bedroom what's your estimated impact on the community that's something we can do we know where it's going to be this is very vague in the sense that we we don't have any we don't have a zoning it got it didn't pass so you would you
would assume you there'd be a lot of assumptions involved in something like this to determine a financial impact and then it you have to look at um a lot of it would be infrastructurebased um you know would they would it require an upgrade in in our school would it
require a bigger town hall um those are the types of things I believe that they are looking for as part of this as part of this study yeah and that's what was confusing me is the reference back to the zoning that was not passed
um if it wasn't if it didn't pass why why would we go back and look at it again well he wants us to do this because he wants us to help the auditor prove it's an unfunded mandate
is what that's what it when I read it that's what it sounds like to me he wants us to help prove it's an unfunded mandate and that it's going to cost the town money versus make money yeah but we don't have an approved um measuring
stick to measure that against because it exactly there's well there's too many variables right and they're all unknown and that's what's difficult that's what makes that very tough to do i mean
sorry no go ahead did have we heard from the state auditor's office to provide them with any information no no we we have not sought uh a determination on this mandate we're currently um exploring our legal options with
council and the board and really can't get into it much beyond that but No no but I mean the way he wrote the state auditor's office is requesting information have they has anybody from the state reached out to us for the financial information that would help them
no so so municipalities can seek a a determination uh from the state auditor which middle borrow did recently right and that's that's how this kind of all started mun municipalities reached out for a determination the state auditor deemed it to be an unfunded mandate where you
go with that right varies so Middlebar um initially was pro um invoked suit against the state um but then they just reached a settlement with the AG's office last week I believe it was right right and and the important thing to note is Middlebar's whole argument was
very very different than Halifax's in the fact that they already have a 40R smart growth overlay district and and kind of said we're already in compliance with a different form of zoning we don't h that doesn't exist in Halifax we don't have that argument um so our argument
again if we were to litigate would be on the basis of this unfunded mandate and if and if you have an unfunded mandate you can basically seek an exemption from the law in court that would that would be Halifax's Avenue if if we were to do
that um but we have not been requested for this for any sort of information and again it's if you look at uh the letter that middle bar sent is it's public you can probably just Google it uh there was a newspaper article about it their their um impact study is is um well just read
it and I think you'll understand and it wasn't necessarily done by a professional firm with all these var you know it's there's a lot of variables um like like Mike said it's just we we could certainly if we were to go the legal route we would do that we would put together those numbers but uh as far
as a full economic impact uh study yeah it's just too many unknown variables right now um with this whole MBTA thing um to why I don't recommend that the town of Halifax spends any more
money on this until the dust settles you know and um to spend money on a um impact study for something that's residents have already voted down i I don't see what the positive
gain is at this point in time for the residents of Halifax is that a motion Frank i'll second it if it is just making my point on how I thought about about it and if you want a motion
I'll make a motion that we do not recommend to fund this project i'll second the article i mean so the motion is not to recommend we are not recommending article 26 that is correct you've seconded second so roll call vote
cheryl I vote not to recommend very good mike Bennett not to recommend frank Johnston uh not to recommend article 26 at this time ej yes to not recommend bill Smith not recommend yes mike Retta
yes to not recommend and I am a not recommend also sir article 26 is not recommended by the finance committee okay um article 27 um again there's uh a lot of information
here but uh effectively I I believe what what they're what the article is asking is for the town to vote to um stop all building permits for new housing condos rentals or apartments
no more water services and trench permits until water services and trench yeah until the town vote to lift such mandate this is one of those ones in speaking with council um
it's quite um potentially illegal um you towns can issue moratoriums on buildings um if there's a specific purpose and if it's for a time frame due to a reason so if if we had um the inability to take on
any new volume for water or sewer let's say top of Halifax had a sewer treatment plant and we had no more capacity to treatment of sewer the town could say we're going to put a moratorium on building any sort of sewer connections anything with a sewer connection but we're working towards expanding our
capacity um just say outright putting a a stop on on building permits um would would present a legal challenge to the community in addition as written it says trench permits um and it's not
legal for us to say "You have a broken water pipe going into your home we need a trench permit to fix it." No we can't issue that trench permit that's we can't do that that's not realistic but again that's how it's written um and also um just to be clear we do not have a water capacity issue in
Halifax i was just going to ask that question isn't that up for the water department to determine what the capacity of the water is if want to build a new home can they provide a water tap for that home yep in in my discussions with uh the water
superintendent we uh we are not concerned with water capacity so if there was a concern can the water supervisor or department head however that he is down there say "I cannot
issue a permit at this time due to water restriction." He could he has the authority to do that not issue a water tap um I don't know if it would be him or if it go through the water commission but effectively we don't have capacity we can't there there
there's a there's there's a fir I'm sorry a permit right so if you want to connect interconnect there's interconnection permit if we don't have capacity we can't grant a permit in the water department we have enough capacity for building yes we have no we have no
concerns about capacity we are not at our capacity within our current wells and in speaking with uh water superintendent there's also uh possibilities where if we were to get close to capacity we likely could seek more um some more withdrawal from our
permits under with D but we're not at our capacity or or really that close to our capacity with our existing permits um our our well permits right now is there a lead issue with the water at
schools um the lead issue is so it's really not even related to this but um fix it so yeah so so there so that we have to do testing at our schools um some levels came in a little
bit high about a year ago at that time out of an abundance of caution we um we basically put signage up that certain sinks were for hand washing only and then we provided spring water um in the interim for cooking and for the kids to
drink since then what we've done is um the all of the drinking water have filters on uh we've tested several times and and there's no lead identified with those filters we put filters on all the cooking equipment um and we've also
there's no requirement that we have to have sinks in every classroom that that's not a requirement and and not every classroom even has sinks but some of the classrooms already have sinks rather than go through and have to continue testing these or put um these filters on every single one we we shut
we kept sinks in the classrooms because there's still adequate you know um sinks in the bathrooms and other areas of the school but it was uh again we looked at the costs and it wasn't cost effective for something that really wasn't
required and local law schools don't don't even have that right they don't deal otherwise so there is no ongoing issue there um it has been remediated with some filters and and also we don't know we're not we couldn't pinpoint
where the issue came from is it an issue with the pipes in the schools it very well could be but we're not test right so we have to do testing of our water system right and and there we're passing those tests there are concerning levels of lead in the water throughout the
system the the the lead uh levels were at the elementary school which leads us to believe that it could have been fixtures right some of our fixtures are old it could have been some of the pipes so with testing the the most cost effective thing to do was put those
filters on um and we continue you know continue to to change those and and I do notice comments on the Halifax stage about brown water i know at Twin Lakes the front part of our I don't have it i live in the back i've never had an issue with water but a lot of the folks that
live near the road have trouble with brown water all the time yeah I know um and and again this is where not to get into our form of government here but you waters commission is elected an elected commission you elect them they
have a water superintendent that reports to them um we obviously work together because we're all the town ballot packs but we I have no jurisdiction over them the board have no jurisdiction over them um in speaking with the water superintendent
um some of the um again the it brown water I understand we are testing okay it's not we don't have a water quality issue per se with testing right i I understand the optics that maybe it looks brown but our our quality when we test it is fine we're not in any uh
issues there um we didn't do as much flushing this past year because we were buying some water from Brooftton due to the ongoing renovations and and we're paying for it rather than us extracting it so we're going to get back to flushing i believe we already have um because that's that connection is shut off with Brooftton so hopefully that
helps um but but as far as a a quality an actual quality issue our water test is fine okay from a chemical standpoint but there is an issue with the town several parts of the town regarding
discolorization of water and that's something that should be addressed but this doesn't this isn't the way it goes about it they don't want us to build and Right
brown water has nothing to do with new house no flush not yeah not building isn't going to fix no fix the issue i say it has doesn't fit into this realm right the article
27 and according to the water department we have enough water availability if somebody wants to build a a new home right to get a water service well again just on its face you
know the just the trench permit piece is right makes it undoable with the water supply to build a new home if you have a permit well that's that's an option here too yeah they have that option right and a lot of towns have gone back to
wellwater again because they can't get tap fees well yeah they've had to um change the way they you know build homes they can't say you have to connect to the water lines you you also have the option of putting in your own well
sometimes don't have adequate supply yep going back to putting wells in at additional cost right right remember when that happened in Brooklyn there was a there was a couple of years there it was a little tough
so if I understand the conversation we are not going to recommend article 27 i'd make a motion that we do not recommend article 27 as written second very good roll call vote cheryl yes mike
Bennett yes uh yes to not recommend frank Johnson not recommend article 27 as written very good ed Brian yes to not recommend bill Smith yes to not recommend mike
Reignetta yes to not recommend as written and I would not recommend this either that is not recommended okay um article 28 is um as written to
uh so the regional uh health group is Halifax is the host community for this one yes um we bring in about $400,000 a year uh we have an intermunicipal agreement with um the Bridgewaters in
Rainham um that's right bridgewater we spring bridge water packs I think that's me yes um and basically allows for uh where that come from yeah
several several um several things that benefit not only us but the other communities um again it's 100% grant funed through the state um we have a few a few employees are funded via it and it basically says um what it allows is
anything that we want to do beyond our requirements are funded by this grant so let's say um restaurant inspections are required twice a year if we want to do four a year those two additional are paid for under this grant um if we want
to do other sorts of outreach um it's covered under this grant one of the other really um nice things about it is you know if our health agent is gets sick or out of the office normal times um I'm either scrambling right to
another community hey can you help us out we have an emergency under this either one of the other uh agents from the other town or one of the employees under this grant it's automatically there available so if our held agent's away this this employee automatically steps in um and and there's no lack of
services so um doesn't this also allow for the a nurse as well by I understand this uh that talking with Bob in the past it's excluded cost for a nurse the costs are included for that the logistics behind that are a little
different a little bit different yeah okay now all we do we became the host community two or three years ago I believe and Bob kind of the Bob the health agent is kind of the
administrator for several towns for this so there's no cost to us to do this we're we're u Yes we're ensuring that there is no economic impact on the time correct yeah we get funding funding put into this and it's distributed amongst the other towns and Halifax on an as
needed basis for certain things yep so we Yes exactly so um the employees are technically Ton Halifax employees covered by the grant we make sure that there is um that there are uh we're being reimbursed for you know any sort of benefits costs
um every we've looked at all of this and then we also in the intermunicipal agreement we made sure to uh include a portion where if there were costs beyond the life of the grant that the community all the municipalities are are on the hook to to pay for those costs so if
some other cost in the future were to come up after the grant expires because that's one of the concerns right money goes away maybe there's a an unemployment cost right or something the other communities are all equally on the hook um but we also make sure that we're
billing um a fringe rate that is going to cover um those things so what's the bureaucracy of this uh I'm not sure you would have to ask are we solving a problem by having this well we don't know it's an additional service to Oh by approving this article I don't think we
have a problem operationally speaking you know when I when I sit down and meet with our health director regularly um it seems like a benefit to the community there there's again it's there's a cost to us but they do away with it right
they're going to put it looks like they're going to put it all in the the town and so there's no control taken away as a result of this we still retain all our local control with everything and we actually have local control but even with this we're not seeding control
to anyone else no so then why don't you see is also curious so it's ultimately we would go back to uh we would go back we would go back to providing our base level services and
not provide anything beyond beyond yeah this gives us a little bit more services a little bit more financial right um money gain into our health department kind of on a regional type level is how I
understood it when it originally came in and I talked with Bob about it he was explaining that to me that we were the host community we'd manage it at no cost to Halifax to the reimbursements from the from the state they're also um we're reviewing the
inter municipal agreement but we we could run into a contractual obligation where we have we we have a contractual we signed a contract with the other municipalities to be the host community yes um so if this were to pass there
could be some breach of contract issue um or you know we would certainly have to look to see if another community would take on the host and then we wouldn't the way it's written I assume we wouldn't be part of that anymore i find it to be having that is somewhat
is positive to the town so I'll make a motion that we not recommend second okay so there's a motion to not recommend article 28 and a second so roll call vote cheryl yeah
mike Bennett yes not recommend brian Johnson not recommend article 28 ed Bryan yes to not recommend bill Smith yes to recommend mike Rignetta yes to not recommend
and I do not recommend article 28 to 12 so this a 70 not recommended article 29 um what's the stretch code stretch code is the is our is it was adopted it's our chapter 14 let's see um
it's in our general b our bylaws chapter 148 it's the stretch energy code um it was adopted in 2015 um it it's basically it was a requirement as part of the green communities program in the state of Massachusetts that if you want to be a
green community you adopted the stretch energy code um and it makes you eligible for grant dollars it it it it's it basically adds on to some of the building regulations note though the new building code is much stricter than the stretch
code in some cases so even if the town were to not take part in the stretch tour anymore there's certain things that would still have to be applied as part of the new building energy code right like there there are some things I'm not I'm not building commissioner but you
know there's certain things where wiring has to be in place for solar you don't have to put the solar in but the wiring has to be in place that's part of the new building code you have to have wiring in place for an electric vehicle charger in homes yeah um so those things would not change the the stretch code
itself would it has to do with um you probably all heard of it hers rating on homes home energy uh ratings when you're doing a new home you have to get this rating to make sure it's above a certain amount um so you providing that documentation um but again the town's
been in it since 2015 my um and it and it's pretty widely um accepted throughout the state the stretch code there's probably close to 200 green communities in Massachusetts now and
again as a requirement you have to have the the stretch code um why they particularly want to remove it I'm not sure you'd have to get that information from the petitioners and the last two she put the least amount of words
yeah difficult okay um so it I I don't I don't see the logic here personally I don't I don't see it either um I actually see the benefit in it but
we're not here to talk about that we're here to talk about funding this right um so well if the building code's already stricter than what the stretch code is correct right it overrides it right right so it's really kind of moot regardless
of what happens so I would say that's I would not recommend this for the town to vote on are you making the motion jim can I make the motion i will make the motion that article 29 is a not recommend by the finance commission i'll second that roll call
vote cheryl Gri yes mike Bennett yes to not recommend frank Johnston not recommend article 29 as written ed Brian yes to not recommend bill Smith yes to not
recommend and Mike Reetta yes to not recommend not recommend as well article 30 is um effectively what they want to do is that illegal in speaking
with council um they want to require that any zoning changes require a two-thirds vote at town meeting and a referendum on the annual town election um all zoning changes can only be occur at town meeting and no zoning change um
at a special town meeting um the concern with council was state law actually dictates what the requirement is for zoning changes so if it creates housing it's a simple majority now that was signed in in into law by Governor Baker
um this would effectively be overruling state law which council did not feel that we have the ability to do um there's you know the other portions are up for debate uh legality but the main concern was that whole requirement of the 2/3 because the state determined in
a law that for certain zoning changes it's only a majority right right it used to be all zoning did require 2/3 but as part of the the housing bill under like I said under Governor Baker if it created new housing um and meet some of
the criteria it's a simple majority now um and that that's the state law okay [Music] there a motion on the floor i'll move to not recommend second okay so the motion and second is to not recommend article
30 cheryl yes not recommend mike Bennett yes not recommend frank Johnson not recommend article 30 ed Bryan yes not recommend bill Smith yes to not recommend mike Retta yes to not
recommend and I may not recommend on article 30 as well okay and then the last article you that's just the election war okay any questions on the warrant
think quite a few of them here tonight we have a couple that we'll discuss prior to Jim is that correct yes we do article 21 will be at town meeting article 24 will be at town meeting and article 7 will also be at town meeting
all right all right that's good that closes that agenda item the follow on item is administrative union update from the town administrator um so I I can't get into particulars of of what the contract will look like because it's only a tenative agreement we reached we
don't have a a signed contract at this point um what I can tell you is what has been built into the budget that you've seen will be um will be enough to cover us for next fiscal year so there will not be the need for additional funding
under fiscal uh 26 under the tenative agreement that we've reached once we have approved the agreement I'll share the provisions of it with you um but I can tell you that we're what we built out and forecasted uh aligns with what the town can afford obviously but what
um what we're able to provide in the budget which is good because we don't have any flexibility in the budget so right okay that's the new units correct with the two two new units yep so library is one unit and then clerical admin is the
other unit and they're both with the teamsters correct but there's two different units you and the team okay any questions for Cody on the CBAs or the two new unions
so their contracts are going into their last year in fiscal 26 so we'll begin bargaining those likely at the end of the calendar year um for successor agreements starting in fiscal 27 cody is it a threeyear that you're the tenative agreements three year it is okay so 26
27 28 okay and how many unions are there seven yeah with the two new ones seven unions a little town well town meeting last year created the
new ones that is true that was the creation absolutely evidence is the result that's right okay thank you Cody appreciate that so we will close out that agenda item we will move on to community or
committee liaison updates there are any at this time um so uh we will pass on that agenda item moving on to correspondence and as may arise um I haven't gotten any emails from anyone in
the town in my email inbox i don't think has anybody else got anything nothing no okay anybody have any business or anything as as may arise that they would like to discuss with the committee while we are all here just the two budget forums that we're going to hold um so we
are going to hold two you've heard me previously talk about this we're going to do two budget forums this year uh open them up to the public um the first one is scheduled for April 15th at 6 p.m we're going to do them both here at town hall in the uh great hall i I I don't
think um you know you you all need to be here obviously if you're able to be here it's good to have the finance committee but um the 15th and then the next one is scheduled for May 5th which is the night of one of your meetings actually so um be good to have you there the the idea
really is we've got this posted online we'll get more information online but we want to um provide a thorough presentation you know what what was the process this year where we ended up and then allow people to answer uh ask
questions prior to town meeting so hopefully we can um get ahead of things and there may be things that come up in these forums that we don't have the answer prepared to but we will get the answer and at least be prepared and and hopefully come at it because there's
always you know as much we we've done a lot of preparation but there's always things that that come up um so I hope our residents take advantage of this opportunity we'll have a Zoom link so again we'll do it in person here and we'll also have a Zoom link um to allow people to uh take part we're going to
record them and uh we will post them online as part of our budget page um as of tomorrow afternoon if you go on our website right on the homepage there'll be an FY26 budget um and it should it's going to have quite a bit of information on the budget process this year try to
be as transparent as possible cody one quick question on the uh people do ask questions at those forums will we get them the answers in between the forums or before town meeting online yeah so if if if um I think I like to
think we're we're pretty well prepared if we have the answer we're going to go right through we'll answer it right away if something comes up where it requires further research um we'll work on that and and if they give us their information we'll we'll send them out the information um as I'm I'm hopeful
too that prior to town meeting after these two forums we can put together a little FAQ sheet of if we see uh themes questions being asked you know so try to get ahead of it for people who you know haven't had a chance to attend a forum or have the time to watch one of these
if we see okay this is a continued question we're getting let's put a little FAQ sheet together and get it online as part of that budget yeah that was that was my thought there was like a a Q&A report after the first or second forum before the town meeting so the public had the answers to those
questions before we got there yeah okay thank you Cody for that all right anybody have anything else they want to discuss while we're all here very good hearing none we will move on to the next agenda item which is public participation so anyone on the on
the call uh listening in uh if you have any questions for the finance committee uh please go ahead and and ask all right hearing none um I will close that agenda item and we move on to next meeting planning what we currently
have on the calendar is April 22nd that's a Tuesday it's the day after Patriots Day that will be a Zoom call and that'll be after the the first budget hearing so it's probably pretty good to get some feedback we can all have that discussion at that point and
then just if there's going to be a maybe just let Jim know if you're planning to attend this or not and then or if you know now that we can post it on there you want to ask Katie to post yeah I'll send her in definitely i think it's
important to be there y I can't last taxes come on Cheryl it's tax day you can blow it off it's only tax day i think just for the just for that posting it's just we should just can we
just put on there like open open budget discussion yeah I just leave it be a budget you know FY26 budget for long okay all right that done all right that is all that we have for
tonight's meeting so do we have a motion to adjourn well presented so move second very good roll call vote cheryl yes mike Bennett yes frank Johnston yes to
adjourn please ed Brian yes bill Smith yes mike McNa yes and I have a yes as well to adjourn so thanks all for coming have a good night thank you [Music]
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