All [Music] right, ladies and gentlemen, it is 6:00
on the 23rd of June, 2025. We'll call to order the meeting of the Halifax Finance Committee. Uh, this meeting is being recorded by Area 58. Committee members in attendance are Cheryl Burke, Mike Bennett, Frank Johnston, Mike Reignetta,
and myself. Uh we will then be so we will begin with the agenda items as listed on the public agenda. So we will go with the acceptance of minutes. Um we tried to run through a few the last meeting we had on the 9th, but we didn't really have a quorum to get them
approved because I think EJ had to abstain from one. So, uh, we'll start with the, um, with the minutes from, uh, 527. So, has everybody had an opportunity to look at the minutes from 527?
Yes. Very good. Anybody have any ads, changes, or deletions? No. No. Can I get a motion to approve those minutes? So, moved. Second. Thank you. Roll call vote. Cheryl, yes. Mike
Bennett, yes. Frank Johnston, yes on the 52725 minutes. Mikeetta, yes. And I'm a yes as well. So that will those meetings are approved. 50. Uh the next set that we had that have
been out are 69. Has everybody had an opportunity to look at those? Very good. Can I get a motion to approve? Some moved. Thank you. Roll call vote. Mr. Bennett. Uh, I have You weren't here.
I wasn't here for that. Right. Okay. I was not here. Cheryl. Yes. Frank. Yes. On the 069 2025 minutes.
Mike. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. So those mo those minutes are approved. 4 Z with one abstension. Um and uh Cody, as I was telling um uh Katie when we when I first got on is I I have some notes from our meeting right
before the town meeting. So, I'm going to pull those together and send them over to her to get those out on distribution because I believe that we have had no joy from Area 58 recovering that recording. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, let me follow up. I can follow up with
Rich, too, and just Okay. Just just put some pressure on them because, you know, it's that I think we had approved a couple of last minute um articles. Yeah. So, I think we need to get that out. All right.
So, I think that is it for the acceptance of minutes. Um, so we'll move into line item transfer requests. So, we currently have we I believe there are three on the table looking that that we
are looking at. So, the first one Cody is uh Steve Hayward's highway one. His numbers aren't right. Let's see. He's got the same set of numbers at the top as he does at the bottom.
Give me one minute. See? Sorry. See, no budget fiscal year. Yeah. So, I don't know if that's a copy paste thing. So, if he could just redo that and resubmit it, we'll be happy to have a look at it. Absolutely. Lindsay, can
you um reach out to Steve and Yeah. Kathy and ask them to resubmit that because they're It doesn't make any sense. Yes. Thanks. All right. Um Okay. So, uh we will move on to the request for transfer from the
reserve fund. So Cody, I think you were saying it's 55. It's 5,500. Is that the final number? Is that an estimate? Yeah. No, we we the proposal came in um the So a little background here. Um last week we noticed one of the AC condensers at town hall wouldn't wouldn't stay
running. Um so Scott Materna had a um HVAC company come out look at it. Basically the coil inside needs to be completely replaced. The condenser is actually still in good shape. Um, so unfortunately to replace that coil though it's it's 50. The final proposal
is like 5,300. Um, but just in case you know you guys know small things come up when they do these things. So we just round it up to the 5500. Um, that's an actual proposal. 52.98 was the actual amount from the um, vendor and we're just looking for this tonight because we
got to we got to get this done. Sure. Sure. Yesterday. So um Yeah. Well, that would have been nice, right? Yeah. Okay. Um, so it certainly makes sense to me. Anybody have any questions for Cody from the finance committee? Well, when
will it get done, Cody? What's the schedule like? Yeah. Um, so I gave Scott the green light on Friday to to get it scheduled with the contractor, you know, and just kind of the note that the we needed the funding approved tonight. So he says he should be able to do it soon,
like this week. Okay. But not tomorrow. But not tomorrow. I don't think so. No, we were saying it's it's bearable in here. It's not too bad right now, but you know, with tomorrow when it's 100° out, I'm not sure. But but luckily, we um we had used some
grant funds uh in the over the winter and replaced three of our other So, we have five condensers here at Town Hall and we replaced three of the five. Um, and of course this is just one of the ones we didn't, but um, it's AC's great in all the other places and it's those heat pumps, so they're incredibly
efficient um, with the replacements. Good. Okay. Anyone else? What the hell would happen here? All right. Um, can I get a motion to approve the
transfer from the reserve fund of $5,500? So move. Second. Okay. Roll call vote. Cheryl, yes. Mike Bennett, yes. Frank Johnston.
Yes. On the 5500 for the reserve condenser coil replacement. I mean, thank you, sir. Mike Reignetta. Yes. And I am a yes as well. So that is approved. Thank you, sir. Uh the next one that we have is a
transfer of funds from the police wages to legal in the amount of $30,000 to make up for a deficit of an overrun due to legal fees. Cody, any history on that or anything you want to
discuss? Yeah. Um, so we had some operational changes over at the police department, just bringing in some new officers and with the retirement of some older officers. So, we're we're running really efficient over there as far as uh budget. I mean, we're as of um as of
this morning, you know, we still we had an excess balance of like 190,000 uh in change in in our wages for our police department, which is phenomenal. I mean, that's that's like 20% uh less than um we were anticipating. So, I mean, we still have one one full payroll left and
then we have a a partial payroll, but we're still I mean, we should still end with over $100,000 um excess in that account, which is great. So, you know, um legal basically we've been doing really well with legal. It's one of
those things that's obviously hard to predict. Um, but you know, you can predict kind of your general day-to-day things and that's where we're only we're averaging three 3,000 4,000 a month. It's it's very minimal. Um, and we were right on track as of March. I would have told you that I we would have come in
under budget, but we've had a few big things come up. Um, the first is the the selectman decided to file litigation regarding the NBCA zoning um requirement. So um we filed for a preliminary injunction against the um
the state in their enforcement. So that um preparing that has has caused a lot of work um and that has increased our legal bill. Uh and the other one that has really driven up the cost is the Morse Brothers litigation, you know. So
so we've we've go back to November of 203 I believe it was. Um, you know, the board issued a permit to Morris Brothers to for earth removal. Um, the Morris brothers felt as though
the conditions, they felt as though they didn't need a permit, that it was an agricultural exemption and that even though the board granted them the permit, just the the requirements within the permit were not allowed. Um so they filed litigation against us. We we've
remained steadfast that we're within our right to to u permit them and require a permit. Um we have um it has gone to the appeals. So we initially did um it it
was ruled against us initially that um that they they should not be allowed to uh we should not we should not be required to have that to make them get a permit. Um, we feel as though the judge in that case incorrectly applied the law. Uh, without going into it too much,
basically he, you know, the the earth removal bylaw is a general bylaw. It's not a zoning bylaw. It's a general bylaw. And in the decision, the judge referred to us um as requiring them to get this special permit, which is which is under chapter 48, which is the zoning
act. That's not at all what this was. The the judge totally mischaracterized the requirement of this permit. So that's why we feel pretty strong in our appeal um that that we have a good case here. But with all that, it's more litigation, more legal costs. So um the
appeal has cost us, you know, some, you know, at least $10,000, give or take, um just by doing that appeal. Then we've also had some other legal matters come up. Um our conservation commission has had some legal issues on 285 Home Street. Um that was a case that was just
remanded back from the court back to the conservation commission. The deal was that they were supposed to approve the um the permit at that point and I I was just informed that they still did not do that. So we may end up in some more litigation there. Um but but the big
ones are really the MBTA zoning in the Morris brothers. Um we we also you know we prepared the budget for this year uh fiscal 25. I didn't anticipate having to bargain any contracts. Um we we had to bargain two contracts. Although one of
them, you know, they didn't end up signing, but when we bargain contracts, there's a legal, you know, legal component where labor labor council is involved to some extent in negotiations. So that's cost several thousand as well that we just didn't plan for because those were new unions that we didn't
know were going to be in place. Okay. So, this is just probably a little little off topic on the request, but with the continuation of Morse Brothers and the I don't know how many union contracts the
town has to negotiate in fiscal 26, I think like five, I think somewhere around there. Yeah. um you know is are we should we be looking at you know an anticipated overrun of legal fees in 26
also you know we increased the budget for 26 um so we we increased it by I believe $30,000 um for 26 um you know Morse the the brunt of the cost with the Morse case is is done because we filed our our our appeal
already and that was kind The biggest cost was preparing all preparing that documentation. You know, MBTA zoning. It's it's that's one of the reasons we did a small increase because the the unknown there. Um the initial filing obviously is under the current fiscal
year, but we anticipate um you know, so the court came out and ruled against the six other communities um and granted the motion to dismiss. We anticipate they're going to request a motion to dismiss with our case and we are not going to
agree to that. I I would anticipate. So there may be some appeals costs involved there if the motion to dismiss is granted. Um and and to be honest with you, Jim, it really is going to depend on the next town administrator, how comfortable they feel with negotiations.
Um, so you know, when I came into negotiations, I had labor counsel there with some of the negotiations, but a lot of them I felt comfortable just I had a lot of experience with with collective bargaining. Um, and I didn't need them at every single meeting. There's a lot of people that prefer that and there's
no right or wrong way. Um, so if you if if there's a desire to have labor council in in all the negotiations, which again is not a bad idea, I could see the budget going overrunning just because that's that's a huge cost, but it's just it too many unknowns. Um,
if all goes well though, I still think our figure is a solid figure. If if we were to do the budget again, I still would I would still budget what we budgeted right at this point. Okay. I appreciate the feedback. Thank you. All right. Anybody have any other
questions for Cody regarding the $30,000 transfer? Okay. And I get a motion to approve the transfer of $30,000 from police wages to the legal account for the town.
So that's second. Do you roll call vote? Cheryl. Yes. Mike Bennett, yes. Frank Johnston, yes on the $30,000. And I'm a yes as well. So, all right.
Thanks everybody. Appreciate that. That's 5. Okay. I believe those are all the line item transfers that are out there. Yes. Um Okay. So, we will close out that agenda item and move on to the appointment
committee review. Um, so Cheryl went to the appointment committee last Tuesday. I did. And uh, Frank and I are back in the game for the next three years. You are.
We got we got our cards today and got sworn in. So, we're all set. Congratulations. Happy to do it. Cheryl, any other commentary or anything you want to chat about about last week or No, it was fine.
It's very simple. Okay, perfect. Well, thank you very much for doing it. Certainly. Certainly. We couldn't do without you, too. So, wouldn't want to. Same. Okay. Well, that takes us to our next What's that? I'm sorry, Frank. Just
thank you everybody for Yeah. No, I thank everybody too. It's the faith in us. I think it's a great committee and I love being on it. That's um absolutely. Um okay. So that moves us. So since we had an election uh with uh we usually or
the town usually looks at a reorganization of the committee. Um I'm certainly happy to continue as the chairman of the finance committee. Uh if there's anyone else who would like to take a run at it for the year, that's certainly fine. Um, but you know, as I
said, you know, I'm happy to continue in the role. I'm happy to have you there in that role. Yes, we are. Yeah, absolutely. For now, anyways, for now. So, Cody, do we need to vote on that or is that just a
You should Yeah, you should you should technically appoint a chair and vice chair every year. So, if someone could appoint I make a motion that we nominate Jim or Jim Waters to be the chairperson of the
finance committee. Second. Okay. Okay. So, we'll do a quick roll call. Cheryl, yes. Mike Bennett, yes. Frank Johnston. Yes. For Jim to be the chairman of the
committee. You. Mike Retta. Yes. Thank you everybody. I will abstain from that vote. can't vote for yourself, I don't think. Um, okay. So, uh, subsequent to that, um, Cheryl, I think you've done a great job as the vice chair. I, you know, if
you don't, if you want to continue in that role, be happy to have you do it. Um, your thoughts. I do. Okay. So, that being said, I would like to make a motion to nominate Cheryl to be the vice chair of the finance committee for FY26.
I'll second that. Excellent. So, we'll do a quick roll call vote. Mike Bennett, yes. Frank Johnston, yes for Cheryl as vice chair. Mike Reign, yes. And I am a yes as well.
So, congratulations, Cheryl. You are vice chair for another year. Thank you. Which leads us to our last position, Mr. Bennett, our finance committee secretary. Yay. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm the clerk.
I'm not the secretary. Clerk. Sorry. My apologies. There's a difference. I'm the clerk. Yes. Yes. Okay. My apologies. I'm not taking No, we have Katie's our secretary. No way. Don't want to Don't want to get in the middle of that. Um, okay. So, uh, Mike, if you want to
continue on as clerk, that's certainly great. Love to have you. Any thoughts on that? Any comments? Yeah, I'm happy to do it. All right. Happy to do it. That being said, I would like to make a motion. I make a motion
that Mike Bennett, continue as clerk of the finance committee for 2026. Excellent. I will second that. Let's do a roll. Cheryl, yes. Frank, we'll come back to Frank. Mike. Yes.
Yes. For Mike as clerk of the finance committee. Okay. Mr. Rignetta. Yes, please. And I am Jim. Yeah, we got you, sir. Thank you. It's just a bit of a delay, so that's it's not a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Well, Mike, thanks. Appreciate your time and and uh you know, I look forward to working with everybody for the next welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Three. Going to be a tough year. So, um everything that's going on. Okay. Well,
I think from uh so we will uh that completes the reorganization of the finance committee for fiscal year 26. Uh, so, um, I know we have an opening with, uh, with Mr. Smith getting on to the board of selectmen. So, any talent bank forms, Cody, come in for the
finance committee or I don't think we've gotten any yet. No. Okay. They don't know what they're missing. I don't know. All the fun we have. That's the problem. They know what they're going to be missing. They're like, we were at town meeting a
month ago. No way. No way for next year. Yeah. Okay. Well, um you know, if you guys, you know, if I run into anybody in town that's interested in doing it, I'll certainly have them put in a talent bank form uh and we'll uh you know, kind of
get that going because I know I've heard several people say they would certainly do it, but when I've talked to them about the current opening, it's been um crickets basically. [Music] So, We'll keep trying.
All right. Um, so that's it for the talent bank forms. So, finance committee summer schedule. So, um, I mean, we were going to cover this in next meeting planning, but, um, I'm thinking, you know, possibly two meetings in July
and then like one in August, I think, is really kind of how we've been running it. And then we'll get back into our twice a month in September. um once once all the kids are back in school and um we are uh you know we can get back on
our first and third uh Monday schedule which always gets thrown off during budget season. So um I'm thinking uh we can do if everybody's okay with the with it meeting a town hall on the 7th of July. So that's after the holiday
weekend. Uh yeah, that should be good. That work for everybody? Yeah. So, we'll do the 7th of July and then we'll do a Zoom meeting on the 21st. Jim, you may not. I mean, if you guys
want to keep the 21st, you can. Um, I don't know if you're going to have anything on the 21st. The 7th definitely because the deadline for line item transfers is the is the 15th. So, um, the 7th I would definitely keep, but but we can't do anything after that. So, I
don't know if you're going to have anything on the 21st. You can if you want you can keep it tentative and if something you guys want to talk about, but I don't you you may just be meeting to meet at that point. Okay. So, um I'll we'll put together like a generic agenda for the 21st, calendarize it, and then
if we need to cancel, then Lindsay, you and I can kind of get together on that and and figure that piece out. Okay. Mhm. And then you know when we we'll we'll talk about August when we you know
on the 7th I guess. Okay. Okay. That works. Everybody okay with that? Yep. Yes, sir. All right. All righty. Um Okay. So, regarding uh any correspondence or as may arise, I
haven't gotten anything in my email from the public. Um, anyone else get anything? Frank, you see anything? No. Yeah, I haven't gotten anything either. It's
all been like empty, so that's good. All right. So, uh, I I would say this though. I I've ran into several people um being around the soccer fields and around the elementary school recently for field day and some other stuff. I've gotten remarkably many compliments
on our committee and the work we did into last year. Like and I mean like more than a handful of people have some I didn't even know and they were like, "Hey, aren't you on the finance committee?" And I said, "It depends." and I would check their hands in their
pockets first and then I would answer. Um, but yeah, more than a handful of people. So, I just wanted to bring up, you know, it doesn't always come in writing, but in person I've had more than a handful of people, you know, compliment us on the work we did into last year's budget. So, and and knowing going into next year's was going to be tough as well. Um, they were happy that
we were able to, you know, sort of convey that this early so that, you know, people can sort of get on board and plan and think so. It was uh it was it was a good reception from some of the people. So, nice to hear. Yeah, don't always hear those good
things. Appreciate you bringing that in. Um that's good to know. Uh Cody, has there been I know the selectmen were putting together for um like a an override committee for next year. Has that is that like formalized yet or
they're still accepting applications or or what? Yeah, the the board approved the charge. Um we haven't posted for the openings or anything yet just because we're we're currently um you know we're accepting applications for finance
committee, right? Planning board. Um what I'm missing something else, too. School committee. Um and those are all due June 30th. So I I suggested to the board, let's wait to post that until July 1st. Um so we'll be posting that
July 1 for the openings. The um the committee itself is made up of let me see it's a member of the uh board of selectman it's a member of the
sorry give me one second we'll leave it included a finance member as well, Cody. Yep. So, it's a member of the board of selectmen, a member of the finance committee, a member of the school committee, a member of so elementary school Ian Silverlake and then a member at large. So, five
members. Okay. So, we'll I'll this will go out on the first and then um at that point the you guys can choose who your representative will be to that to that group. in that Cody. If there was if there's five spots and that at large
spot had no talent p talent bank applications and one other one of us applied, would we be able to do that? I don't see why not. Yeah. As as the atlarge citizen spot. I'm just curious. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see why the board wouldn't um I think they'd probably like
to open it up initially to you know just someone who's not involved in the finance committee but if there isn't any interest I can definitely see them you know approving you know a member of the committee okay I'm thinking they'll be
lining up for that citizen at large you'd hope so Frank exactly I can leave a names off the top of my head already. Well, they could get somebody from one of the public forums that we have. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good idea.
It's just so many of them there. Are you suggesting Fred Corgan because he's one of the only ones that are actually Ruth was there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Ruth was Yes. Yes. Ruth showed up. Chris Winnowitz was there as well. Yes,
that's true. Yeah. And his mom, too, I think, right? Didn't he have his mom on there? Was it was on Zoom? Oh, look at all these people. Yeah, family affair. You guys are crazy. Okay. Um, anything else for as may arise? Anybody want to have anything
anything to discuss with the finance committee members while we are here? I just want So, this will be my last meeting. Um, my last day in the office is July 8th, but I'm off the 7th. Um, so I just want to express how grateful I am for all of your partnership over the,
you know, past few years. Um, you've, you've made my life a lot easier. Finance committees can either make, you know, a town administrator's life a lot harder or a lot easier. And I've been very fortunate, um, over the past few years to have such a good group of you. Um, you've worked it with me. You've
respected the professionalism. Um, and you I think you've truly been an asset to u me and also to the community and all the departments. So, um I thank you all. I really appreciate it and um enjoyed working with you, which uh you know, I I genuinely mean you don't hear
that a lot, but I I really have enjoyed working with all of you and um I look forward to watching you guys just from a distance um going forward. Thank you. Certainly enjoy working with you, Cody, as well over the years, working with you as well. Yeah, we're
going to miss you. Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Cody. And uh I don't want to see any emails over all coming in from you. Uh yeah, Cody, it's been uh it's been really great having you here. I think uh
your professional demeanor in public meetings Yes. and some of the ranker that was coming at directed at you and the way you the way you dealt with it in public and in private is was extremely professional. So I I nothing but high
high marks from me on that. Thank you. I agree. You're you're in good hands with Lindsay. Lindsay is great. Uh she's an incredible asset to the town and um you know the board will be uh I anticipate uh hiring an interimm town administrator. I I think they're going
to probably do a special meeting next week to interview a few candidates. Um and then, you know, the the process is ongoing for the permanent replacement. The um recruiter has posted the position. I think applications are due sometime around July 10th, give or take
a couple days. Um and then the board will be putting together that screening committee. And um the goal would be I think the board would like to have an offer out by the end of July to a candidate. And you know, we'll see what happens with a um a notice. You know, if you find someone who's a town administrator, it might be a little
more, but um but the board's definitely on top of it and and moving forward. So, I'd like to think you'll have someone in place prior to the start of budget season, which is uh which will be good. Yeah, it'll be great. Necessary.
Thank you, Cody. It's been my pleasure. It really has. Okay. Anything else? All right. Um, so that moves us out of correspondences as may arise into public
participation. I don't see any members of the public here. I'm missing something. So, uh, we will close out that. Uh, we already discussed next meeting planning. So, again, we'll be meeting uh, in
person town hall on the 7th. Uh, and then if we if we need it on the 21st, that meeting will already be set up. If not, um, you know, as I said, Lindsay and I will chat about that and we may just cancel that. So, we shall say, but we will talk about August on the when we
meet on the 7th just so we get that nailed down. That's as long as the AC is fixed by the 7th. Right. Well, [Music] okay. All right. I think that is it for our meeting this evening. Again,
appreciate everybody's time and being on time to the call. So, can we get a motion to adjourn? So, moved. Second. Thank you. Roll call vote. Cheryl, yes. Mike Bennett, yes.
Frank Johnston. Yes. Tojourn, please. Thank you, sir. Mike Reignetta. Yes. And I am a yes as well. Our meeting is adjourned. I will see everyone the next time. Have a good night. Thank you all. Good night everybody. Everybody
[Music]