WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=0VS8mFi5RME

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: 0VS8mFi5RME):
- 00:00:31: Meeting Call to Order and Initial Announcements
- 00:05:07: Town Administrator Report: Route 79 Project Update
- 00:05:38: Approval of Meeting Minutes and Finance Committee Introduction
- 00:06:19: FY27 Override Discussion: Budget Presentation Introduction
- 00:07:30: Budget Process and Factors Leading to Potential Override
- 00:12:34: External Problems and Revenue Raise Summaries for Budget
- 00:15:56: Free Cash Number & Summing Up Fiscal Year 2027
- 00:17:57: Future Revenue Opportunities: Cannabis Tax & Meals Tax
- 00:20:10: De-Enterprising Parks, Stabilization Funds Discussion
- 00:21:51: Appropriations/Expenditures: Education, Fixed Costs Increase
- 00:25:05: School District Expenses & General Government Expenses
- 00:27:31: Health Insurance Cost Increases and Capital Planning
- 00:29:35: Free Cash, Budget Drivers and Collective Bargaining
- 00:32:23: Hiring & Spending Freeze & Override Schedule Explanation
- 00:34:17: Fiscal '28 Working Group & Proposed Three-Year Override
- 00:37:36: Ballot Structure: Potential Cuts If Override Fails
- 00:42:30: Presentation Complete, Discussion with Select Board
- 00:44:31: Select Board Discussion & Complexity of Ballot Questions
- 00:46:28: Separate Questions: School & Town / Need for Clarity
- 00:47:52: Finance Committee Members' Discussion and Override Vote
- 00:49:37: Questions on Firemen, Revenue, Override, Pension, Rates
- 00:55:29: Override Vote Timing and Revenue Considerations
- 01:02:10: Budget Passage Contingency: 1A/1B Plan, Estimated Costs
- 01:03:17: Open Discussion to Public
- 01:05:15: Public Comment: Melissa Ryan Dolton
- 01:08:29: Public Comment: Sean McGee, Paraprofessional Perspective
- 01:11:59: Public Comment: Lori Fehee, Council on Aging
- 01:16:28: Council on Aging Question and Response: Senior Expenses
- 01:17:38: Public Comment: Laura Smith, High School Student
- 01:18:32: Public Comment: Reagan Jensen, Junior at Regional HS
- 01:21:23: Public Comment: Colin McKay, Data on Underfunded Schools
- 01:24:11: Public Comment: Ryan O'Connor, President of Senior Class
- 01:27:22: Public Comment: Eileene Newell, Educator at Freetown Lakeville
- 01:32:23: Public Comment: Cynthia Grabbkey, Libraries and Digital Literacy
- 01:33:19: Public Comment: Lisa Ayafrey & Nicole Gracia, Grace Specialists
- 01:35:38: Public Comment: Tony QP, Boston State House hearing
- 01:41:29: Public Comment: Jeremy Morray, Lakeville Resident and Educator
- 01:43:40: Public Comment: Rich Lamemer, 52 Year Resident
- 01:50:53: Public Comment: Julie Kobus, Village Road
- 01:52:48: Public Comment: Tony QP, Solution Based Recommendations
- 02:00:23: Select Board Recaps: Three Major Decisions Remain Tonight
- 02:02:23: Board Requests Clarification: Percentages of Potential Overrides
- 02:03:21: Formal Motion to Pursue $4,915,700 Override
- 02:06:58: Discussion and Possible Override Structure Vote
- 02:17:51: Roll Call Structure Vote & Education Funding Allocation
- 02:20:58: Setting the Override Election Date: Motion, Discussion, Roll Call
- 02:26:57: Motion to End Meeting for Select and FinCom Boards


Part: 1

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and welcome. >> Hello everybody. >> This is a very loud room, so I need everyone to cooperate and be part of the process. So, good evening and welcome to the select board and wage and personnel board meeting of Tuesday, March 17, 2026

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at 54 5:50 p.m. We are at Lon Pond Lodge. Is anyone else recording the meeting besides Lake Cam? >> I'm Sam. >> Thank you, Sam.

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>> Do we have a flag in here? It's just noticeable. >> We are going to move on. >> I would like to begin to call the boards to order. Select board. >> Hunt present.

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>> Blanca present. >> Candido present. >> Carboni here. >> I'll call the Lakeville Finance Committee meeting to order at 550. >> Right here. >> Manovsky present. cost present. >> Be's here.

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>> Thank you everybody and thank you especially to the library staff and the lake cam for setting up today. Um this is a difficult room so we're going to try to be as organized as possible. All right, first up on the agenda is the

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select board announcements. Member Carboni Okay, if everybody if you can't hear us um when we're talking this evening, can you just kind of give us a a hand just so that we know that we're speaking loud enough for you. Um so we still have a

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few vacancies on some committees and commissions um that we'd like to try to um fill. So we're looking for an associate member for the zoning board of appeals, a member for the board of registars. We have two vacancies on our cable TV

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advisory committee, one vacancy on the communication. Actually we don't, we're fully staffed on that one. Um and one member at large for the zoning bylaw review advisory committee. Um, you can find details for these on our town website or our Facebook page or you can

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contact any one of us uh the select board select board office and we'd be happy to have a conversation with you about what um would be involved uh in joining any one of these uh positions. I also want to mention that our Lakeville

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Lions Easter egg hunt um is for this year is has been scheduled for Saturday, April 4th from at 11:00 a.m. sharp at the Lions Clubhouse at 170 Main Street in Lakeville. So, that is a huge event and uh very well attended. So, hopefully

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we'll see see you there. Uh the open space final public feedback session um is going on March 25th at 4 to 5:50 5:54 p.m. at the Lakeville Public

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Library. Um so please if you have um some time to stop in um we'd love to hear what you have to say. Um your input is very important. Also the town of Lakeville open space and recreational survey. Um you can see

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that on our town website. Uh there is a car a link there. Um, so if you have a few minutes, you know, click on it and take the survey. Uh, another announcement, the fire station,

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um, groundbreaking ceremony, uh, we had to reschedu due to that white stuff that ended up on the ground. Um, and our rain and snow date was also, um, pushed out. So, we're looking at Friday, March 27th at 9:00 a.m. over at the

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site. And then afterwards, we'll be meeting over at the uh police station for some light refreshments. Um and I hate to say that there's a rain and snow date on there um for Friday, April 3rd. Um also at 9:00 a.m. Um and that's all I have.

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>> Thank you. Any other members have any uh uh community announcements? Hearing none, we can move on to the town administrators report. Andrew, >> just one update for tonight. Um, we're going to send out a formal communication, but the Route 79 project

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will be beginning on April 6th. Um, that'll be likely tree clearing and um, shrub removal, stuff like that. So, exciting, but obviously residents will need to be informed and we plan on doing that. >> Okay. So, as many communication methods as possible, yep,

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>> would be appreciated. >> Fantastic. We're on to the minutes of February 3rd, 2026 and February 17th, 2026. Are there any questions or omissions or

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errors or ministerial changes? Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the select board and wage and personnel u meeting minutes for February 17, 2026 and March 3rd, 2026 as presented.

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>> Seconded. Motion and a second hearing. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. >> Hunt. I >> log I. >> Candid. I >> Carboni. I. We're now entering into the joint meeting with finance committee. And our first item is discussion and possible

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vote on the FY27 override. We have a presentation from the town administrator, the finance director, the HR director, and man management analysts relative to a possible FY27 override and override election date. I will hand it

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over. >> Thank you. Um I'm Andrew Sukor, town administrator. I'm joined by Michael Ellis, the finance director, Lacy Marshall, the HR director, and Emily Serret, the management analyst. Um just first like to say thank you to the library for setting this up. Um it's not

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as uh easy as you would think to do this and it's much appreciated. Um the goal tonight of us four is to present um as clear as possible both our problems I guess in the town. Um it's every town's facing it. Um but to give options um

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we're running out of time as we've kind of said multiple times. Um, so we're looking for feedback, but we're trying to be as honest as possible with where we are and um we're opening to questions obviously. So without further ado, um, so where we are currently in the

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budget process, um, we've been refining budget estimates probably since July 1st, 2025. Um, the governor's budget came out late January. Um, obviously state aid didn't go up as much as we'd like. Um the House and Senate will be convening on the

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budget over the next few months. Um I know some people are optimistic in what they're going to give us, but I'm personally not. Um but we're still refining estimates um constantly. Uh is the budget is not really final until it

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gets approved at town meeting. Um so those numbers will change. Um we've worked with the school district um constantly. We've been in constant communication monthly since July. Um well, obviously, as we'll get into, we're just facing just structural issues

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that it's just hard to climb out of. Um uh we've gotten into department reviews. We haven't done that with the select board and finance committee, but that's going to happen in the next several weeks. Um, and then anything that we do, I think mo this year more than any other

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year, we're going to communicate with the public especially to tell us tell everybody where we are, where we're going. Um, so the biggest question I've gotten since I've even mentioned the word override is how did we get here? Um, to

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be honest, I think people are looking to cast blame on one side or another or try to put a a face on on the override potential. Um, so what the MMA has done to kind of dispel some of this stuff, and this isn't just for Lakeville, they

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put out a press release. It's called the per a perfect storm. Like I've said, every town community in the Commonwealth is under significant pressures. Um, every I mean, any town that says they're not facing problems, I know personally

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they are. Um, so I think the best thing we can do is acknowledge it. um and then try to see what the best solution is. So, what um I've put a list together here of everything that I've kind of put on a list of where we like what really

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is the problem. State aid, I think everyone knows chapter 70 is not going up very high. Um UGGA unrestricted general aid doesn't go up very high, maybe 30,000 a year. Um and we've kind of put an over reliance on a special revenue that we've had, which is smart

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growth funding. I don't want to get into the the weeds too much, but it goes up and down every single year. Sometimes you get 700,000, sometimes you get 300,000. Um when we put that in a budget, if if it doesn't go our way, there's problems.

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Um I actually went to the state house to meet with our senator today. Um and really he he just reiterated there's the budget at the state level is not is not going to be very good this year. Um, and so the the stuff we've we've

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counted on for years may not be there. New growth, um, which is essentially new taxes per year based off renovations and construction. Um, that's dramatically decreased. We're we're projecting, I would say, the second worst new growth

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year in 25 years. Um, so that's a problem. Uh, on average the last 25 years, we get about 310,000. We're projecting 140,000. less than half. Um there's really been no additional revenue opportunities

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proposed andor passed um in the recent years. We have some plans we'll share tonight of how that could happen. The biggest problem on this list is rising fixed costs. Lacy will get into this. Um everyone's probably heard this. Health insurance, I'm sure everyone knows is

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the cost of health insurance has just exploded. And that's similar for us as well. Um pension continues to go up. liability insurance goes up. Um, local receipts are stagnant. I mean, they're they're consistent, but we're not

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getting new revenue. Um, which when we when we try to estimate them high, it just means we have little free cash at the end of the year. Um, positions and salaries have been added to the budget. Um, I think on every side, um, we added

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four last year. I don't know if we could have afforded it. I I I would say more than anyone I think they were needed. Um it's just I don't know if we can afford it. >> Clarification that was uh for firefighters that we added on correct to the budget. >> Yep. Um and then the rising cost of

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education. Um assessments are going up. Transportation's going up. I've heard this for 34 years. My mom was a school teacher. My great-grandmother was a school teacher. My grandmother was a school teacher. And my wife is a school teacher. Um so I've heard about

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education issues all my life. Um, I know education is kind of shifted. It's different than it was even 5 years ago. Um, so I know there's a reason why the cost has gone up. I think the schools have done a good job of doing that. Um, and then obviously, um, the biggest

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point on here is towns and cities are all facing the same issue. Um, I was on the state house today and a gentleman came up to us and he said he was from Nebraska and our senator asked him, "What's the biggest problem in Nebraska?" and he says health insurance exploded the Nebraska state budget. Um

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so um the biggest takeaway I have for everybody it's not a school issue it's not a town issue there's just external problems and I think when problems like this happen there's a there's a people are looking to blame one side or another and I don't personally want to get into

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that too much. So um without further ado >> thank you. So this next slide is a summary of how we raise revenues for our operating budget. Um without revenues we have no budget. So this is really step one in any municipal budgeting process. >> Please.

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>> So here we have uh a fivey year a four-year outlook of our revenues. Um FY24 and FY25 are actuals. Um FY26 and 27 are estimates. So, starting from the top, every year we can raise without an override 2 and a.5% on our prior year's

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levy limit. As you can see, we're raising 677,000 all the way through $750,000. This is a permanent increase to your tax base. So, every year it compounds and we multiply the new 2 and a half by the levy limit plus the 2%. The next factor

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is new growth. As Andrew mentioned, this is an increase of property tax for any new construction, renovations. This is also a permanent increase to the tax levy. So each year this gets tacked on and this is also multiplied in the subsequent year by the two and a half%.

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These are our main sources of revenue for our budget here in Lakeville. Um next is our state aid. Uh there's town state aid and school state aid or education state aid. Um the town side is generally made up of unrestricted general government aid which is the

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aotment for every municipality in Massachusetts. There's also some revenue for elderly exemptions, veterans exemptions, and if the state owns land in our municipality, they will pay a essentially a pilot to the town for that. Um, everything with state aid has

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been fairly consistent as you can see over the last four years. Um, it's rising, but it's not rising as much as our expenditures are. Uh, next is the state aid for education. Um, as you can see, there's quite a bit of flux in this. Um it is because we received money

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uh smart growth money. There were only two towns that received this money, Lunenburgg and Lakeville. And there's only a specific dollar value allotted to those two towns. However, more municipalities have joined. So now we're dividing that number by more cities and towns. So we're receiving less. Um next,

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uh another main revenue driver is our local receipts. This is any non-t taxable revenue. So, dog license, motor vehicle, uh, building permits, things like that. Um, we have very consistent local receipts in town. Um, we kind of

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keep everything around, ideally you want to keep everything around 80% of prior year actuals. You really don't want to max out on your local receipts. Um, the state vets these numbers and they they don't want you to kind of max out on your prior year actuals. So, you want to kind of find that sweet spot. Um I think

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we've over the last two years due to budget constraints we have gone a little higher than we would like to. So um in future years we're trying to plan to bring those back down some. And then the last is our town's free cash number. Uh free cash, I hate to use the term profit

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in a municipality, but it's essentially the health of the town for that year. Like how well we did as a municipality. Um we're generally between 1.4 and 1.7 million. As you'll see on your screen, uh we did have a sale of a radio tower or a lease of a radio tower in FY24

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which kind of drove that number up, but fairly consistent revenues in Lakeville. Um unfortunately, our expenses are just climbing that much faster. Next slide. So to kind of sum up fiscal 27, um I

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view this as new revenues for appropriation. Um so this really tells us how much money do we have to spend in fiscal 27. As you can see, the levy increase statutory goes up a certain percentage. New growth is what we project. Um I'm sure everyone knows construction's not really kicking in

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Lakeville. Um there's not really a lot going on. state aid is just it's it's flat. So, it's not really going up all that much. And that's the uh the net of what we would get for state aid. Um our state aid education is going to go down. Um chapter 70 has gone up, but smart growth has gone down. Um local receipts,

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we're trying to bring that back to best practice. We don't want to go high on those cuz um we could get ourselves in trouble with the state. Um and then the parks indirect costs. So when we have an enterprise account, we can charge back the enterprise for all the stuff that the town does on the general side. Um so

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as you can see, new money, how I look at it is we have $748,000 in new money. Um as Lacy will get into soon, um fixed cost alone went up $575,000. So we have 200,000

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to play with just off the top. So I mean that's put great stress on everything else. Um the next slide is future revenue opportunities. So these are just four that we've identified. New

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growth. Um as everyone knows Lakeville Country Club, um MBTA, Rocky Woods, Dirty Holland, these are all big kind of projects kind of overhanging the town. Um, these won't necessarily help the operating budget, but it will help capital. Um, it will give us more free

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cash to use. Um, um, I can turn it over to Emily on the next two. Sure. Can you guys hear me? Um, so Lakeville has the ability to uh collect a 3% local tax on retail

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cannabis sales. Currently, the town does not have any open retail cannabis establishments, but we do have one company who is currently working on opening up a location um at 8 Harding Street. So, we don't anticipate that

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we'll receive revenue within the next coming fiscal year, but hopefully by fiscal year 28, we'll start seeing some revenue from the cannabis tax, and we estimate that to be about uh $60,000 a year. Um, another uh potential revenue

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opportunity we have that people are going to have the opportunity to vote on uh during the annual town meeting is a meals tax. Lakeville is one of the only communities in the area that does not currently collect a meals tax. Um, so

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I'm sure everybody is probably familiar with the state meals tax. It's uh 6.25% on like hot food and at restaurants. um we as a town can assess a 75% tax um that will come to the town directly. Uh

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it will be on the I believe annual town meeting warrant. So if that passes we will start collecting revenue uh at the end of December of this year and we estimate to collect about $125,000 a year in revenue.

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So another uh future revenue opportunity is um deenprising the parks department. Um an enterprise fund is currently uh it's standalone. It should operate like a business. Um it is outside of the general fund and I do want to throw in

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the caveat that deenprising the enterprise deenprising the park enterprise fund is not necessarily a revenue driver but it's also a buyin for safety for the parks department. Currently, our parks department does not have a reserve fund. A reserve fund is uh for unforeseen and extraordinary

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circumstances. If they deenprise, they could be part of the general fund's reserve fund. They don't typically raise a lot in retained earnings, which is similar to the general fund's free cash, which can be used for capital items, new vehicles, buildings, equipment. Um if they were to deenprise, they would be

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part of part of our free cash number, which would provide more for capital projects for the parks. Um, in return, we would then absorb their roughly $80,000 a year in retained earnings would be part of our free cash. And of course, we would absorb their expenses,

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but also their revenue. So, any rental agreements they have with Loon Pond or the MMA studio and of course any user fees for the fields and other items. So, it would be uh kind of a win-win for both. We would kind of absorb some extra revenue, their expenses, and it would

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provide a safety net for the parks enterprise fund. Um, so the town has two stabilization funds. To the next slide, Mike, thank you. The town has two stabilization funds. We have a capital

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stabilization fund and a general stabilization fund. Um, the capital stabilization fund is used for capital expenses, so onetime expenses if necessary. Um, stabilization funds are typically referred to as a rainy day

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fund. Um, it's something that towns have the ability to put money into it, but it's a bit more difficult to take money out of it. So, it's typically not something that's used as a regular uh source of funding for projects. Um so the capital stabilization fund has a

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current amount uh in the fund of $2,330,966 and it has about 3% return and the general stabilization has a uh current balance of 2,554,699 also with approximately 3% return. Um

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the town's double A+ bond rating uh is I think helped by these stabilization funds. Uh bond rating agencies look favorably upon towns that have healthy stabilization funds which I think we do. Um

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so yeah >> so earlier in the presentation you heard me speak about revenues which is the starting point of any municipal budget. Now this is the second half. This is the appropriations or expenditures. Um what we're showing here is our total um appropriations from fiscal 24 through

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fiscal 27. Um as you can see the town side has increased 13% since FY24 which is roughly about 3.25% a year. Um you'll see a little bit of an increase from 25 to 26 because we deenprised the transfer

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station and we absorbed their expenses and their revenue. Um, next is education. They're increasing from 2024 about 25.6%. Um, which is about 5.1%

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per year or 6.1% per year rather. Um, and our fixed costs um, as Andrew mentioned earlier have gone up significantly. I think the percentage doesn't necessarily do it justice because there's multiple uh, areas of fixed cost. If I draw your attention to the dollar value from 26 to 27, you'll

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see it was almost $600,000 from last fiscal year to the fiscal 27 budget, which we're currently planning now. Um, and last on this list is offbudget expenditures. These are items that are somewhat out of our control. Um, cherry sheet assessments, which is uh state

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assessments that we have to pay out or they're indebted against our cherry sheet revenue, our state aid revenue. And then the other item is uh overlay, which if anybody files for an abatement, a real estate abatement, it is funded through the overlay account. I say I don't have control over the overlay

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account because the state recommends a 5-year average in overlay when setting the tax rate for the town. So, um my hands are kind of tied as to how much we can put in there. um because the state can mandate uh that dollar figure. So this slide shows um so we're a part

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of four school districts. Um Free Lake Regional School District, Old Colony uh Regional Vocational Technical School, Bristol County Agricultural, and then Northfor County. Uh we have one uh well two students at Northfor right now. um

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about 18 at Bristol County, um about 141 or so at Old Colony, and um honestly, I'm blanking on the Free Lake. Um my apologies, but um this kind of shows the es and flows between 24, 25, 26, and 27

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requested. Um as you can see, um the variations, the eb and flow, there's peaks and valleys. Um an old colony can sometimes go up, free lake doesn't, and vice versa. Um, and so this kind of shows where we are with the education

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assessments. It really shows that this year is the first year that it's really exploded. Um, and so this is just kind of setting the table for a later uh part of this conversation. Um, but just really for informationational purposes,

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this is a similar slide to the school um variations that Andrew just mentioned. Um, however, this is everything except school. This is general government, public safety, public works, health and human services and culture and wreck. Um, as you as you

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can see, uh, really it's all within about $150,000 on the general government side. It's very consistent the variations amongst functions. You'll see an increase um 25 to 26 under public safety. As many of you recall, we hired

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four firefighters from the ARPA grant. Um, so you see an increase there. Um, and then down in public works, you see an increase of 330,000 or so, um, as I mentioned, we absorbed the transfer station as a department in the general

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fund operating budget. Um, outside of those kind of percentage changes, significant percentage changes, it's a very consistent variation on the town side from year to year. Um, I do want to point out that in the bottom right corner, culture and wreck under FY27,

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that looks uh like a big increase. It's an error. It should be 463, 938, not 485,000 for a 12% increase from FY24. But outside of that, we're very consistent in our year-to-year variations or um expense

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budgeting. Okay, so the one that everybody's been waiting for, health insurance. Uh, as we all know, health insurance continues to rise. Right now, we're currently in the Gateway Health Group, but as of FY27, we will be disbanded and entering into

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Mayflower. Based off of that, we're projecting a 16% increase, which is why that number is significantly higher in FY27. uh the retirement and the pension. We're under Pum County Retirement Association

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and up until FY 31, we have seen like 8% 9% increase. Once it hits FY31, we will be fully vested. It doesn't mean that we won't still have to pay into the Plymouth County. It just means that

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it'll significantly decrease for us. um property liability insurance. We've gone out to get multiple quotes. Uh over the past few years, we've stayed consistent at an 8% increase. So, we earmarked it at that percent as of right now. So, our

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total overall is about an 11% increase with health insurance being the biggest driver. >> Let's go uh 27 capital planning. Um my advice or my guidance to the um departments in town, give me your emergency type request. Give me your big

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things you can't live without. Um that number came in around 2.9 million. Um where we are, I I can't in good faith recommend a high number. So I brought it down to $527,000 of recommendation. Um which obviously

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means we're not funding $2.4 $4 million of capital requests that really are needed. Um it's just we have a limited free cash availability. Um and we as we'll get into a little bit later, we have a lot of things that are still

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outstanding. So um we we're keeping a decent amount of free cash in reserve just to give the select board finance committee more options. Um, so, >> so currently our free cash is right a

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little bit over the 1.7 million as you see for your starting balance. Currently we have 25,000 earmarked and it was approved for the town hall reuse. Um, and then secondary is the $814.50 that was also approved for unpaid bills.

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We are looking at a $100,000 operating reserve fund and as Mike stated before that's for the unforeseen or extraordinary circumstances. Uh compensated absences is with something that we had added last year. We're looking at $50,000. This is for

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when people retire or we have to pay out sick or um vacation time. It's already there so we don't have to request it later on in the budget. So that gives us a total of the $83,36.77 which makes our ending balance the

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$952,19723. Oh, just kidding. Still me. Uh so future budget drivers, just to reiterate again, there's the health insurance that retirement and property that's expected to continue to rise over the years. And then once we have that

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new uh fire station, we'll also have significant operating costs that we'll have to look at. >> Um next next future budget driver is uh the Old Colony Vocational School. Um obviously that vote came around once. Um they're are planning on a second. Um you

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know with that comes a larger school, larger enrollment, larger maintenance costs. Um it is uh just something to plan for in the event the school vote does pass. It will affect the town's operational budget. Um the next is the Freelake Capital Plan. Um they have

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developed a master plan. There is no it's very early. There's no discussion on how we're going to fund these items, whether it be free cash, borrowing, etc. Um, but those are some future needs of both Old Colony and the Free Lake School District.

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>> And then lastly, we are currently in collective bargaining with four of our bargaining units right now. Um, so we do not have an exact number on what that is going to look like or what those costs are going to be for the future.

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So, we've shared all these slides to now to kind of give the town and everyone else context of this conversation that we're going to have now. Um, what the recommendations I'm proposing are going to be. Um, so the first one um is something that's already been done. The

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select board implemented a hiring freeze um in February. I've uh established a spending freeze on the town side as of March 13th. Um we're still able to spend for essential services. Um but non-essential has been um

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stopped. Uh that's the purpose of that is to save money in the current year. Um just in case we need a bigger free cash in the fall to fund any of these pri priorities that we're going to talk about. Um related to the special election. um the

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way the uh town clerk's availability is um and what the deadlines are, we need 35 days to schedule an election in town, a special election. Um so we need to decide by May 19th um if we want to have an election on June 23rd. Um town

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meeting is June 9th or June 8th that Monday. Um so actually yeah, yeah, I think I'm right. Um, so we don't need necessarily need a decision tonight, but I think in order for an override to be successful, we need to take the message

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out to the people. Um, the constant thing I always hear is we don't get the message out. Um, it's frustrating for me, but um, I think me, Mike, Lacy, Emily, uh, the select board finance, I'm willing to meet anyone anywhere, um, to get the message out. Um, and and part of

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that is to schedule these public outreach education meetings. um probably every Saturday or Sunday, once or twice during the week. Um we don't have a lot of time, but I'm willing to get the message out, share why we're in this um dire straits. Um and then the final

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recommendation I would have is a creation of a fiscal 28 um budget working group. Whether we do an override, we don't, it fails, we pass it, I think it's it's very critical that we form a fiscal 28 budget uh working group. as we'll get in to this. Even if

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we pass an override, um future funds are not appropriated. So, we can pass a big number on um the second year, but that that still is a contingent on town meeting. So, it it opens it up to priorities of the select board of finance committee town meeting of how

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they want to spend any future monies tied to an override. Um so, this is uh obviously one of the bigger slides. Um what what we're proposing is a three-year override. Um the big thing um is if you pass an

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override, you get exactly what the level services budget is up front. Our biggest concern is that a year from now, we will be in the same exact position, probably even worse off because we don't have an override to fall back on. Um,

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so what we're trying to do is have one ballot that has three separate overrides in it, which would level service both the schools and the town side for at least 3 years, potentially more if revenue comes in how we like it to um

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tie to new construction, new growth like that. And so this 2.615700 615700 number that comes from level service on the town and school side that that that funds every request on the town side and every school. So it'll be Free Lake, Old

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Colony, Bristol County, Northfor County um for fiscal year 27. Um the tax impact on that is $51326 in that first year which comes out to $128.32

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quarterly. Um the plan would be next year um we can get into this in a little bit is we've projected out our expenses and our revenues out three years. Obviously that can be difficult to do um but what we did is we kind of went high and conservative in certain locations.

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We think a $1.3 million number in the second year is enough to get us level services without cutting anything in that second year. Um, so this $56989 that combines fiscal 27 and 28 together. Um, so you're bringing up the taxes but

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more gradual. Um, the same kind of message on the third year. It would be a million dollars would get us level services and it would project if you combine with the first two to be $970.18. Um so it would be phased in over 3

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years. Um this isn't to be honest with you it's not the method that most towns do. Um what I see a lot of towns do is they do an override and then they say in a year we got a cut and then they cut their entire budget. So, we didn't think we thought it was essential to make the

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override last, but we don't want to do this make get everyone going um get the message out there and just have it last one year. We want to have it last three years, 5 years. Um so, that's generally the tax impact. What a ballot to look

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like. These would be three questions. Um question 1 A, question 1 B, and question 1 C. Um these are standalone. They're not contingent on each other. So if this method was to be pursued, you could walk

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in the ballot and vote 1A and say, I'd like the schools and the towns to get together and you know what, we one year is only only the only only thing I can afford. Um you could fund 1 A and then 1B, or you could fund all three. Um, it's critical to know that even though

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that we're getting a 1.3 in the second year and a 1 million in the third year, like I've said, those funds aren't appropriated. So, those would be contingent on town meeting in those years. So, even though you're asking for this money, you're not you're not tying your hands to any future budget from the

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schools, from the town, anything. Um, so that I think is the most ideal uh method. I'm open to feedback. Um there's about 15 different ways you can do an override. Um there's pros and cons to all of them. Um I know a big one I've

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heard from this is that it's confusing. Um but I think what it does is that it it gives the town a long-term solution or gives a good chance to. Um and then the last piece um is potential cuts if an override fails or

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one is not pursued. Um, obviously this this is going to change um depending on what kind of override you do or you don't do or if it fails or if it passes one of them. Um, these are theoretical. Um, there's no secret list of who's getting cut if this gets failed. Um, be

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honestly, we have a list of expenses that we're cutting and then we have a list of vacant positions that we would cut out of the budget. There's no list of who's getting cut. Um, I've heard that a lot this week. That's it's not um something we have. Um, but this this is the level of services you would expect

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to see cut. Um, I think the schools have been upfront with saying they've lost about 50 positions um, both part-time and full-time. So, that's where we got that number. Um what you're going to see at town hall uh both our building uh inspectional services

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um different buildings you're going to see kind of creative solutions to see who can make who can work part-time or part-time positions needed. Um are is every full-time position I guess worth it? Um is there ways to make make town

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hall more efficient? We've looked at ways. Um we want to get into some of that stuff during the budget hearings. we we don't think this is a good spot to do it now. Um there's a lot of people behind these positions and departments. I don't want to put people's names or positions out there at this point. Um

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but public safety um there just it's just big numbers which would have to include potential cuts to public public safety personnel that exist on the town right now. It wouldn't just be vacant positions. Um public works. Um Mr. Monise has come back with essentially

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cutting his expenses to pretty much zero. Um, which means road work maintenance would get cut. Our chapter 90 funding would wouldn't be just used for funding roads. It would be funded for materials tied to those roads. Um, which makes projects that Frank does I

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think a great job. They go a little less. And you'll see that year over year how it gets affected. You may not see it in the first year, but on year three, you might say, "Why didn't this road get paved when it could have?" Um, health and culture. Um, you may, we

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haven't determined, but you may see some cuts on the COA and library level tied to hours and programming. Those haven't been decided or even really discussed really extensively. Um, and then cost of living adjustments. Um on the town side,

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um this would cover what has been consistently given to the town side the last handful of years. Um so that would potentially be a cut to get to zero. Um the number we we see as trying to get to zero was 2.615700. That's obviously the first year of the

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override. Um so if it fails, you got to cut that to get to zero. Those cuts have to come from somewhere. I know it's going to be potentially painful. um in certain departments. I know the schools will be greatly affected as well as town operations. Um but there's a lot of variables. Collective bargaining is not

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done um on our side. I don't think it's done on the school side as well. Um and this list isn't exhaustive. Uh obviously you cut people, you add unemployment. Um health insurance kind of goes up and down, swinging depending on what people's plans they take. Um, but this

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is a general feeling of how an override if it fails or is not pursued, this is what it would lead to in the town. Um, so that's really our entire um presentation. I'm wearing

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the same uh outfit picture. Um, but um that's everything we have for tonight. I hope I know there's I know there's a lot of questions. Um, I think we opened up to the select board first and and finance.

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>> First of all, I'd like to commend you and your team for doing exactly what the select board asked and making it as clear as possible for everyone on the impacts, on the inputs, on the outputs, and having that all at at everyone's

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disposal for everyone to see here on what clearly is happening, what has happened in the past, and what could happen in the future. So, thank you very much. I I really appreciate that. Um my first comment is the same comment that you got from probably other people and I

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know I've given it before. Um the override structure that you've discussed um even though uh the the thought process behind it is completely spoton. I think the execution behind it is going

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to be incredibly tricky the way you've described it. microphone, please. >> Thank you. I'm How about now? Can anyone hear now? All right. So, the way that you've described the override um in the the choices that it' be made at um at

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the ballot are it's incredibly confusing and very hard to educate the public on. And I would be very worried that the result would be one item out of three because they think they're doing three or or not having that first critical

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override and going for the other uh the other two. So I'm very very concerned about the structure that you stated there. Um and actually I'm going to open it up to other people to talk about theirs. Member Carboni, please.

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Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I want to say thank you. Um, this was probably the the clearest um presentation um for clarity on where we where we stand. So, I really appreciate the the time and effort put into this. Um, you know,

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nobody really wants to have the conversation about the override. It's necessary at this point, but again, what is the best way to put this information out there? Um, you know, we could ask one question. We could add up all three of those and

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the town would vote no because the taxes are all at once. Uh, so how do can we do it gradually with the clarity that we would need for understanding? That's the outreach I think that um, Andrew you

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were talking about. And I want to make sure that if this board does vote to to pursue you know the override then you know what the that we have enough time to get that information out to to all the residents so that the clarity is there and not

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misinformation. So >> thank you member Pona. >> Uh thank you madam chair. So um I echo the um madam chair you had some similar concerns regarding the complexity of the three ballot questions. And I think that would definitely lead to some confusion.

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So I think there's some discussions are needed on how we should move forward on that. Uh I would like to advocate try not to introduce another level of complexity here, but I would advocate separate ballot questions for override amounts for the town versus the school.

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Um, I think that would allow a little more granularity and allowing the residents to decide uh how much of those additional funds above 2 and a half% where they're allocated again versus the town supporting the town uh versus allocation for the school department.

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>> Thank you, member Hunt. >> Very much a difficult topic for me. Um, I'm probably the only person in this room that I recognize that was >> the other one. >> Go for this one. Go for that. >> Um, you're going to get yelled at.

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>> I'm probably the only one in this room um that I see that has actually been threatened with a layoff from the town, laid off from the town, and then rehired by the town. Um, I I could be wrong. There could be other people in this

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room. Um, but it did happen to me. So, I am um I am concerned about overrides as a taxpayer, but I am thankful for an override because it continued my working career and allowed me to continue to be

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a taxpayer in the town of Lakeville. Um, I appreciate the work that everybody has done here uh to get us to this point. I continue to be concerned with some of the spending uh that goes on, but I do

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believe that we need to move forward uh with an override question or questions uh in what would be the least confusing manner for the people that show up for the ballots. Thank you,

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>> members of the finance committee. >> Good. Yeah. Um, I would just echo that that um I think whether you're for an override or against an override, it should be put to the people to decide that. Um, but we do need need to make it clear. Um, being on the finance

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committee, when I looked at your proposal, I didn't understand it. Um, so I'm guessing there might be other people that don't. Um, so I think we just have to get it right so that people can make an informed decision. I appreciate all the work that all of

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you did on this. Um, I am generally against all overrides, but I I see where we are numbers-wise, and I've said this before. I think before we can present an override of any amount to anyone, we have to show that we're not level

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service funded that we've shown to be the proper stewards of the citizens dollar by doing cuts. So, if we can show this cuts, then I could support an override. But if we're just doing an override to level service,

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then I don't think we've done our job. Um, I'm not saying where we have to cut. I'm not going to get into that, but um I did like Chris's idea of splitting it up. It does make it even more confusing as Andrew knows. I just came over to ask him what all this meant. Uh but uh I

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think we have to show the taxpayer as a whole that we're doing our very best to use the least amount of their money as we can because we're asking them to give up a percentage of their income. Period. Uh, Barbara Manovsky, can you hear me?

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Okay. I'm going to ask some questions of our two boards. Can you guys hear me? That's It's weird. Um, uh, because I think these we're talking about communication and there's things that we may be aware of that I just want to highlight um, for everybody else. So, I'm going to ask a couple questions

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mostly for the benefit of the group. My first question was we talked about the fact that we hired four firemen in 2025 and we made the clarification that those were actually ARPA funds when those people were originally hired. So those weren't brand new hires. Those were

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people that were put in place during the COVID process and we got those funds and we um hired some people and then we made them permanent employees which in hindsight was the right thing to do because it's important for everybody to understand that our firefighters are also a revenue source for the town. And

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I would like to point out that the revenue source for I get really nervous up here guys. I'm sorry. um for the town for if you look at the budget for uh 2027 it's 1.135 million that isn't all

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coming from the same services we're billing back um I just want to be clear about that but those firefighters are actually part of the revenue for the community so I just want to make sure to bring that point to to everybody um we have uh other most important thing I

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want to bring up is we have not had an override in Lakeville since 2014. There's a print out of the history of the overrides if people would like to take a look at it. I think it's really important to recognize the successful management that this town has had for

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many, many years in terms of managing costs because they have not come to us and asked us for increasing above the 2 and a half% even during times when clearly the rates of um cost of living and so forth were rapidly moving beyond

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that. To that point, I'd like to mention to everybody what the line item is for the health insurance. When we're talking about the cost of health insurance for my day job, I'm a mortgage lender and I can tell you I'm in people's pocketbooks. Our nurses and doctors are not making more money than they did last

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year nor the year before. But I see a line item increase of $47,000 for this year alone. And I think the prior year was around 300. Is that about correct? Somewhere in that range. Okay. So that's $700,000 that the town of Lakeville paid

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not for our schools but for our municipal employees in terms of health insurance increase. We're all experiencing the increase in health insurance but take that home with you and understand that is a huge part of this problem. The other thing I would like to bring up is I'd like to ask a

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question about the retirement pension. We talked about being fully funded. That is expected in 2030 or 2031. >> 2031. >> 2031. What kind of an impact will that have on our budget, would you say, just ballpark in 2031?

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>> So, you can do >> you want to go? >> Well, I I can probably answer that. Um, so our our pension um assessment with L County will probably be $2.5 million in 2031. Um, I can't tell you exactly what the new assessment will be, but it'll be

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in the low six figures. So, you're probably looking at 100 200,000. So, you see a big a big jump in the positive for us. We'll see $2 million likely decrease, which would fund up our budget for different things. >> Which brings me to my next question.

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When does the operating budget on the new fire station hit our budget? >> The station is expected to be completed July 1st or so in 2027. So, it would hit 2028 fiscal year.

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the 2028 uh the override that we're talking about, does that capture those funds? Is that in the third piece? >> Very important piece of information. Okay. Um my next question is, how many town employees do we have that are currently using health insurance? >> 66.

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>> 66. Okay. If you go below 50, our health insurance situation gets worse from the research that I've done. Um Okay. I would like to also point out a couple more minor points. Tax rate in Middbor is 13.26.

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Tax rate in Rochester is 10.59. Tax rate in Lakeville is 10.35. >> So, is it expensive here? Yes, it is. But it's also very expensive in surrounding communities. >> 9.7 >> 974 >> 974.

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>> We're 9.74. >> Our tax rate. >> I just did a quick Google search. So, just to get some perspective on on what this means for the community. The last thing that I want to just mention is uh well, there's two things I want to mention. We talk about the $100,000

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uh going to the stabilization fund. It's very important. Even though it looks like we have that extra money sitting in that account, that's part of our credit rating. So, if we needed to borrow money down in the future, we would need to maintain that credit rating. And maintaining a strong stabilization fund

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is part of that responsible management of town funds. And the last comment I have is regard to communication. I have heard a lot of people in the community say that they don't have communication. I would like to remind everybody that we have a communication board. We have Facebook monitoring. We have email

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notification. If you go to the town's website and you sign up for email notification, you can receive notification of the things that are happening in town. We're all mostly volunteers and we put in a lot of time and energy. So, it's frustrating when we say that people don't know what's going on because we're trying very hard to

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make sure that we have a transparent, functional government for the rest of the community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? >> Um, thank you, Barbara. You had a couple of the points I was going to make, but the last point I want to make on the

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presentation as written is it is my opinion that the override vote if we decide to take it would need to be taken prior to town meeting. The date of June 23rd is what two 3 weeks after two weeks

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after town meeting. Um I think it is a a mistake to have it that late. I saw in your note that there was a there was a reason behind that. Can you can you explain that? >> Town clerk's availability. Um she's not going to be around during the critical

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times where we could structure one. >> So it'd be difficult to have a proper election. >> I can't say that that should be holding up things. We do have an assistant town clerk. Um I I believe that's within their scope um that they should do that.

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I would not like to hold up the proper process or what I believe the proper process um should be for the vote and uh and to do that because to do to have a town meeting at this point where when we're in that section um it it would be disastrous as far as you know outside

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votes or or or just people being nervous and not understanding you know what it is that we're actually voting on because it could change. There's pros and cons to every um every method. Um you do it after may not even

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need to do one if it fails a town meeting. Um yeah, there's just um there's there's pros and cons. If you don't if you do one on May 19th, you have to pretty much make a call pretty soon. We're going to have probably less than 30 days to really advertise it to people. um the

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criticism will probably come fast and heavy that we're not really advertising it very well and that people still are going to have questions on the day of the election. Um Emily and I put a bunch of stuff out on hold colony months ahead of time and we got criticized non-stop

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about not telling anybody and >> welcome to town politics. >> I know ideally we'd like to get the message out as much as possible. I >> I understand your concerns and I think they're all valid. Um, but procedurally I think it would be a much cleaner vote

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and a much more reliable vote in order to have it in May or prior to um the town meeting. It could be June 1st. I don't know. But it would just have to in my estimation be prior to and we can have that conversation with the board. But that is my opinion.

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>> Yeah. And the biggest pro you have on that obviously is the scheduling of if it fails layoffs last week not good obviously. Yes, understood. >> Yeah, >> please. >> Uh, just a point of clarification. So,

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if we put the one question out there u for FY27 and the questions for FY28 and 29 are no. Is there anything that would hold us um when we start working on the FY28

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that there would be an opportunity um to put out the question again? >> Nothing would stop us from doing it again. Um it's just up to what the board feels. >> Okay. And then um my other point would be that if we were to start to see some

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of the revenues coming in that are you know on the horizon um the question might not need to be as much or at all. >> Yeah. Um it's something we haven't actually um shown which is uh we can put

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up on the screen. So we did a three-year projection. It's it's incredibly hard to do this because we we really you don't know if some guy comes in tomorrow and says I want to build a skyscraper and you get the revenue from that and you never would have foresaw that. Um so we actually our new growth projection is

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200,000 and then 250 which is just it's not great but if somehow new growth like you said comes in very high we may not need an override in that second year. So your point yeah you're you're right. Just a rebuttal point. I I don't know

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that the people of Lakeville would be happy with that methodology. I think that comes across because they're not all going to have been attending this meeting and I think it would come across with, oh, they're coming back for more. Um, and just I I'd be very concerned at

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the uh the way that we would position such a the way that we would position such a a uh a vote and a request if we came back a second time and a third time. Um, and how that would how that would translate into voter apathy.

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>> There's a lot of considerations for any any call we make, any method we take. Yeah. So, yeah, I I hear that. Any other comments from board members, staff? >> I do, Madam Chair. Going back to the question about the

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override. So, let's just assume A, B, and C all get voted for. Um, in that developer comes and builds that skyscraper, they've already voted for the override. Do we then give the money back and say we're not doing the override or because it's been voted, we

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taking the money anyhow? Well, I guess you're talking in the circumstance where we would have a surplus budget, not a budget that's in a deficit. Um, you would you could put that as what's referred to as excess levy capacity, which means you're not taxing up to the full 2 and a.5% and it

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becomes like a non-t taxable portion. It's not great practice to do that because it compounds and then you're not recapturing that the following year. It's kind of like dead cap space, if you will. Um, typically if you had a surplus budget like that, I would recommend putting in a stabilization fund, uh,

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something that's high interest earning, um, offsetting some capital projects for it in the future. Um, >> so spend it. >> Uh, I would actually recommend debt service and get rid of it. >> Debt service. Yeah, there's a bunch of things you can do with it. >> It's just tough because you could wind up in the same situation again if you

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were to taper that down off the levy limit. So, um, okay. >> You'd have to know what the exact numbers are at the time. If it's, you know, we had $21,000 of excess lending capacity last year, that's nothing. That's pennies as you spread it out. So, if it's a number like that, sure. But if

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it's seven figures, I wouldn't recommend that because now you're kind of going backwards. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Y >> Now, I'd like to take this opportunity. >> Sorry. One more. Just to go back on the timing of the vote. Um, so how would how

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can you pass a budget at town meeting if you don't know if the override's going to pass three weeks later? >> So what a lot of communities have done is something we would do is you pass a a 1A and a 1B budget. 1A would be the override budget. So you would it would

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show almost like two different columns what you fund with the 1A. If it's a 1B, it would show you what would get cut. So you would approve both budgets. Um, in the event that it would fail, one V gets adopted by default. So, you wouldn't have to come back to town meeting and approve a different budget.

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>> So, you you end up having two budgets at town meeting that you're voting on essentially. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Why can't we vote ahead of time? >> Madam Chair, can I ask one more question? >> Uh, in your presentation, you had some figures, the estimated cost per household. Can you give us the

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assumptions on those numbers? The average house in Lakeville is $625,000. Um, so that's what the number is based on. Um, the average tax bill is about $6,97.

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Um, so that's what those numbers are based on. Obviously, they climb up depending on how the value of the house is. >> Mhm. >> Anyone else? >> Yes. Question question for town administrator regarding the proposed budget.

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>> So I I see here that the proposed budget um assumes successful passage of the override. Correct. >> Lay down. Yes. >> Uh and that uh amount includes fully funding the Freetown Lakeville school

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assessment increase of about $1.8 $8 million uh which is about a nine and some change percent increase. Correct. >> Might go a little higher. >> Right. >> Yeah.

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>> Um will we have the opportunity or I don't think we I don't believe we need to decide that tonight. But if we move forward with a separate ballot question for the school department versus the uh town, I'm assuming we can adjust that

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number and maybe potentially reduce that amount to a something that's more sustainable as we've been advocating for constantly for several years now. Uh I would advocate for something maybe more on the lines of a 2.5% increase in our assessment versus a almost 10% increase.

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I I don't have the numbers in front of me, but a 2 and a half% increase is about 450,000. >> 445. >> 445. Correct. >> Our minimum contribution number to Free Lake is 480,000. So that would be the state requirement

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that we'd have to increase it to. Um obviously it's up to the select board and finance committee how you want to fund the assessment. >> Right. And now the discussion will come later. >> Yes. I'd like to open it up to the public at

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this point if anyone would like to stand up and elect her. >> Can you Melissa Ryan Dton? >> Can you please state your name? >> Melissa Ryan Dolton. Would >> you mind like straining it to about 3 minutes so I can get lots of people in?

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>> Yep. No problems. I would like to ask >> I would like to ask um why we have chosen education >> over health safety was another I think cut we were going to make um and I guess

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I'm I'm asking Mr. Planka directly why we've chosen just one portion of it when we are clearly seeing a huge cut to the entire town. >> I'm not advocating a small percentage increase for the school department

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versus what's been requested? I'm not discussing any any if if if a override fails, that's a separate discussion. >> Okay. But so you're not concerned with doing any other separate questions other than education?

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>> No, no, no. I I am proposing ballot questions to separate the override amount versus the town funding versus the school funding. >> Okay. to allow the residents to have that choice to make that choice. >> I think that message is loud and clear, at least to this crowd. I think it's loud and clear. Um, my second question

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is I think you're speaking to the crowd that knows that things fall on deaf ears, right? Every teacher has spoken to every parent, every child, um, fire, police. We need to find better ways of

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communication. I I'm on Facebook. I see it. We were all I think a good majority of us were confused as to where emails were coming from last week. I went on and I went I can check probably 40 to 50

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different options on communications just from one town, a small town. So for me to choose how I get all these pieces of information

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into my email that we know is flooded. Absolutely flooded. I hear it. I see it. I know I can go on. But the message is not getting through. We saw it with the fire station. They did a phenomenal job

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with getting that message out there. We need to do that approach for our schools and for our town because we're all driving around. We're in trouble. We're in big trouble and the message has to get out there. And I don't know the

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answer because like I said, it's all falling on deaf ears or it's being missed totally and there just has to be more creative solutions. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next person, please. Please state your name.

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>> Oh my god. >> Uh, good evening. My name is uh Sean McGee. I'm a second grade par professional at Freetown Elementary. Um, I'm going to speak from the perspective of a par professional in relation to the school. Um, and these proposed cuts. Uh,

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for 5 years I have done work that every par is familiar with. I don't have time to list all the ways a grade level par provides for students, fills in the gaps and keeps the whole ship afloat. But suffice it to say, it's a lot. From bus and recess duties to in-class learning

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assistance to one-on-one working with students who need that extra attention to stay on task, the absence of paras comes back around to straining the classroom teacher and minimizing the attention and quality of services for the students themselves. There's always a need and par professionals are the

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flexible ones to fulfill them. Paras often have deep ties to the community. Also many have kids in the district and this brings an added investment and understanding of our students needs. Um often the community is not aware of the positive impact powers have on all students. It's behind the scenes work a

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lot of the time. Um and but the negative impact of their absence along with every other position and resource at risk should the community vote against continuing support for the excellent education

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consistently provided by Free Lake schools would certainly be felt. This district stretches every dollar of a relatively small budget in comparison to other schools of the same quality of of education that these students come

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out with to provide the most for its students. And without any of these pieces, you will have larger classrooms and an inferior learning experience for every student. Please approve a level service budget that will continue to support our students at every age. Thank you. >> Thank you for hearing.

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>> Madam Chair, can I ask another question? I just want to uh to whom? Uh actually, Mr. Planka. Um it's my understanding that part of this problem with our school budget is the shortage of funding from chapter 70, and that's because we're a rural school and we're not getting our fair share. It's my

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understanding that House uh bill number 517, Senate 314 is a bill that would call for the state to properly fund us our chapter 70 money. and we probably wouldn't be in this situation if that we weren't being well wouldn't be as bad if we weren't being shortfalled by the

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state. So this is a problem all the rural schools are having. I just want to point that out. Thank you. >> And yes, you are correct. Uh the chapter 70 formula is complex. It's a black hole in my opinion. Um there's been a lot of discussion in the legislature and trying

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to revise those formulas. There was some outreach meetings held uh last year for the public which I attended. uh and unfortunately the chapter 70 formula is based on median uh income and property values and so forth. So the chapter 70 formula favors the specifically the

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gateway cities and I'll give you an example. Uh the Freetown Lakeville chapter 70 increased about 2% this year and New Bedford increased I believe by 4% and Fall River uh increased by 8%. uh not something we can solve tonight, but adv definitely advocacy with your

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legislature uh is definitely needed to revise that chapter 70 formula to help return some of that uh state funding back to our communities. >> Thank you both. Please state your name. >> Hi, my name is Lori Fehee. I'm the director of the Lakeville Council on

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Aging. Many of you have heard how fun and welcoming the COA is, and we are. But what many people don't see is the full scope of what we do every day for our Lakeville's older adults, caregivers, and their families. I

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appreciate the chance to speak with you tonight, and I ask that you not just listen, but to truly hear what I'm about to share. Without an override, or even with an override, um, we could be closed on Fridays and have staff cuts. Please

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understand the impact this would have on our most vulnerable population in our community, our seniors. If the COA was closed on Fridays, our meals on meal services would be interrupted. This means many of our seniors would go 3 days without a meal and 4 days if

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there's a Monday holiday. More importantly, missing wellness checks from our delivery drivers. Our wellness checks are not courtesy. They are a critical safety measure. One example demonstrates how essential these

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interactions are. Our meals on wheels driver at a senior's home received no answer at the door, but could hear the senior crying for help from inside the house. 911 was dispatched immediately. The senior had fallen out of fallen the

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night before and had been on the floor all night long. This is only one example of the types of emergencies we respond to promptly because of meals on wheels deliveries and wellness checks. Our delivery drivers often become the first line of

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safety and support. Our COA cafe operates every Friday from 9 to 12. These cafes are an important opportunity for newcomers to meet new friends and form supportive connections within our community. For many of our regular

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attendees, this cafe is an essential part of their weekly routine. And yes, I have a page, too. In addition to the social connection, we also provide blood pressure checks from our fire department and importantformational sessions during

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these cafes. Cutting Friday hours would significantly impact the well-being of those who rely on these services, not only for health monitoring, but for social engagement and community involvement. If the COA is closed, we will no longer

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be able to transport Lakeville older adults to and from their adult day health programs or provide volunteer out of town medical rides. with no band service. This affects trips toarmacies, banks, grocery stores, and local doctor's appointments. And if it's

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closed on a Friday, it would be right before the weekend. When there is a Monday holiday, this just extends the time they'll be waiting for a van ride. We work very closely with Lakefield Police, fire, and border health departments to ensure the safety and

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well-being of our senior community. Some examples of instances of situations that arise daily, and when I say daily, I mean daily, are elder abuse, self- neglect, deplorable living conditions,

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no heat, no food, affordable housing needs, and fuel assistance to name a few. These are situations that arise daily and you may not be aware of. for us seniors to have to sacrifice these services due to staff staffing or our

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cuts I believe would be detrimental to our senior community. Lastly, I'll leave you with this. Research shows loneliness and social isolation are significant public health concerns among our older adults, often leading to adverse adverse

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health effects. Weekends are consistently shown to be higher risk periods, but loneliness among older adults because structured weekly activities stop. Family and social visits often decline. With Friday

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closures or hours cut, this extends their isolation. Please take this information into consideration while you decide on your override or not. Thank you for your time. Thank you. test. Oh, she already left. I just had a

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question for the COA. >> Lori, >> Lori, >> come back up. >> But you you can you could probably just yell the answer or just yell at me, whichever you prefer. >> You will. Um, I your your statements

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were very passionate and I I adore the COA. I I think everything you do is amazing. Here's my question. Your clients can't afford a $1,000 a year increase. What do we do with them? How do we tell them that they have to sell their house and move out of Lakeville?

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>> I agree with you. I I will one I am actually in agreeance with the um staggered uh possible override. I think that will help them to make decisions in their budget and give them a few extra years to think about what they need to

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do with those bills and in the meantime we'll assist them as best as we can. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Laura Smith and I'm a freshman at Regional High School. I'm here tonight to speak in support of the level ser service budget with an override.

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>> Can you speak up a little bit? >> Yeah. Thank you. As a student, I see every day how much of an impact this school system makes on its graduates, students, and teachers. Without an override, we risk losing services that students deserve. Class sizes will grow, programs will be cut, and me and my

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peers in the younger classes will lack the education we deserve. The changes I just listed to you are significant and every single one would affect our schools and the people who walk through those school doors every day. I'm asking you to consider what kind of community we want to be. One who maintains

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services and prioritizes our students and staff or one who falls behind and allows these issues to slip through the cracks until it's too late. Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you very much. Please state your name. >> Good afternoon. My name is Reagan Jensen

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and I'm a junior at Aponquit Regional High School. I have been in the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District my whole life starting at As Swampset. I'm en enrolled in multiple different courses at my school including APs, honors, and career focused electives. I'm also a part of a variety of clubs

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including holding leadership roles in many. These experiences in my academic career have prepared me for my future and for every step I will take to build it after high school. A budget cut for our district would threaten the number of opportunities we currently have as students. These cuts would mean larger

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class sizes, fewer opportunities, and the loss of staff that is crucial to our success. Our school is in the top 25% of high schools in Massachusetts. And that's not only due to the drive of the students, but also because of the amazing staff who not only teach, but also support

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their students inside and outside of the building and school hours by answering emails over the weekend and at night, staying after school to help those who are struggling, keeping us engaged, and doing their very best with what they are given. Our school is not ranked highly

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due to luck or chance. We are ranked highly because of the work put in each and every day by teachers and staff. With the threat of losing such a significant number, fear circulates around our district by students. I invite you to look around and notice the amount of students here. We are not here

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because we were invited or forced to be. We are here because we fear what will result from this. We fear what our school will look like after losing the people who support us daily. We fear struggling in classes when we can't receive help because the classes are overflowing, so one-on-one help is

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nearly impossible. We fear not being able to fill our academic resumes with impressive classes and clubs because we no longer have the option to be in them. We fear losing the staff who who let us tell them the truth, who listen to us, and who better us as people. This fear

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is not something we should be threatened with. I am sure that many, if not all of you, have some connection to a child in this district. Whether it is a child of a friend, a grandchild, a niece or nephew, or your own child, these children depend on their schools. This

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district takes up about 2,160 days of their lives from kindergarten through graduation, and every one of those days is supported by the dedication of our staff. I hope the impact on students is not being overlooked. I hope you consider the humanity and moral responsibility

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involved in this decision. When you vote on this budget, you are not just voting on numbers. You are voting on the opportunities, support, and future of every student in this district. Thank you. >> Please state your name. >> Good evening. My name is Colin McKay and

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I'm a student student at Aponica Regional High School and also a Lakeville resident. I'm here to share some data about our school district's funding that I believe deserves your attention as you consider the upcoming vote. Our community is f is financially strong, but our schools are not funded like it. Lakeville the Lakeville median

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household income is $134,000, which is nearly 30% above the Massachusetts average of $104,000. Sorry. Uh the Lakeville property tax is $9.74 which is per thousand dollar which is significantly below the mass average of

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the estimated $13. Yet our school district is one of the most underfunded in the region. Freetown Lakefield spends $17,291 per student per year. The Massachusetts medium is $24,359

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per student. That was a gap of around $7,000 per student, which in nearly $19 million districtwide every single year. We rank 376 out of the 396 Massachusetts school districts and per pupil spending.

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That gap has real consequences for students. When budgets are tight, the cuts fall on programs that matter most to our futures. AB courses that strengthen college applications, electives and other programs that help students discover what they are

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passionate about, activities and clubs that build leadership, teamwork and skills that colleges and employers look for. When those programs shrink or disappear, the students who come after us move opportunities that he'd never back. A student who doesn't want access

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to AP classes in high school can doesn't get a standing chance at that before college education I do. Despite the underfunding, our district still ranks 81st in magistrates by most nearly willing report which is the highest winning school in the zel and we also

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ran 67th on dog Austin magazine academic with a 95% graduation rate. We are achieving strong results with limited resources, but there's a ceiling on what is possible. The math is straightforward. If Lakeville's tax rate

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moved at the 2.5% towards the state average, it could generate an estimated 4 million or more in additional annual revenue, enough to begin meaningfully closing this gap and protecting the programs our students depend on. I respectfully ask the flag board to

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make a school funding a stated priority in the upcoming vote. and the decisions you make today will shape what is possible for students in this addiction for years to come. Thank you for your time and your service to our community. >> Please state your name. >> Good evening everyone. Happy St.

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Patrick's Day. My name is Ryan O'Connor and I have lived in Loite. I'm president of the senior class, vice president mc capital football process individual. Tonight I would love to tell you all my perspective of the countless amazing

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opportunity the school has given me. But I realized that I'm here more than enough to that sadly some people just don't care. I stand before to try and send him some respect to the air. For those of you

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that don't live with other brave men in the sanity, the part to serve. Those who sat in these chairs a long time ago decided to build this school system to educate their children and contribute to a better society. They

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also established this foundational depart and government. Out of all things they decided, this foundational lead was so crucial to our school and towns that they needed to engrave this modern glee into the cement to the very foundation

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of the school, the foundation of many of our lives. Maybe they critic that years down the line they needed to remind him to catch your hair. This amazing school district has prepared me to embrace this building. Just like Rey mentioned for the last 12

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years, especially these four I knew every teacher, faculty member, coach, most students and certainly myself that were taught every day to serve mankind. That being said, I can't help but wonder how decreasing educational services

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serve to better the economy. We have seen and heard the statistics and personal accounts in the sheer magnitude of force of later pride. There's no other way. There's no way we as towns of a school system can this foundational belief in grades in our very own

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building and do a complete opposite. Currently, we are leaving the the fruit on the tree that those planned a long time ago. It would be shameful to become of the abs that cuts this tree down. We're not complying about old buildings, faulty fire alarms, dirt patch field and

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crack was camp infestations, moldy vents, peeping ceiling, dirty water, days of death, soccer train, or all the other conveniences that you would think might disrupt our education, sports or spirit. Instead,

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we're asking for the ready to to consider us in overriding this puzzle and for you your role in better serving of mankind. Years from now, the students may remember this meeting and we will live with the results of the decisions made by the people in Thank you very

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much. Appreciate you. Please state your name. >> My name is Eileene Newell and I'm an educator in the Freetown Lakeville School District. Thank you for allowing public comment and the time to do this. I just wanted to say

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>> Sure. Absolutely. Here you go. Are you First of all, I know you're very excited to meet me tonight. You said, "Will she come?" She came. She's here. All right. So, I just wanted to point out in the beginning of the COA as well as education, the most two vulnerable

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audiences of your community are at risk right now. Whether you're coming or going, you need funding. I have the privilege of being a member of the Freetown Lakeville School District. My duty every day is to

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educate the future of your community which is now a surrogate of my community because of the amount of time and I put in and all of my colleagues and people that support the schools put in. So I am here because we are at a breaking point.

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I am pleading with you to please endorse this override in your community. without this override which it was brought to our attention that we have not had since 2014 if I got that number correct. Let's take a moment to say that we have had 12

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years of making mountains out of mole hills. We're not asking for extra. We're asking for bare minimum basic level service. We're not asking for the moon. We are asking to just continue to service our students in the top

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percentage of the state of Massachusetts schools with some of the lowest budgets statewide. We're willing to keep doing it. Will you please let us do our jobs? Please just give us without this override. The ripples of

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our failure will follow these children for years to come. We aren't cutting line items. We are cutting human capital and services. The manageable class sizes gone. Paraprofessional support and title one interventions that keep students

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from falling behind are at risk of not being available, which I shall say the math work done by those students with their percentages and calculations. Ah, hello Kitty. Very nice job. All right. We also risk the programs of students

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learning through arts, sciences, and physical education domains to satisfy the whole student as a whole learner. We must attend to all facets of these children. And as a basic service, everyone in America should be provided

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with this as a taxpayer. So, let's just follow suit and do what we need to do for this close-knit, beautiful. So wonderful, amazing community. Without proper funding, our youngest learners are going to lose foundational math and reading support that they need to

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succeed in later grades. And our older students have already been scarred by deficits that they experienced due to significant disruptions even just during CO 19. So now, if we continue to cut and not fund, they're going to be forced to

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weather a second absolutely preventable upheaval. And if you doubt the impact, then you can look at the middle schoolers who are reading at third and fourth grade levels because they've been playing catch-up for five plus years. So please do not add to this. This is a self-inflicted crisis and we have an

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opportunity to find our way out. Underfunding a level service budget essentially guarantees declining test scores, the loss of state funding, a mass exodus of talented educators and administrators. Ultimately, you're going to lose the

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families and home buyers, your taxpayers who will move here for our schools who have said that's the reason they come here. It is a total systemic collapse and it's the ripple effect that begins with your decision tonight. We're not

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asking for extras like I already stated. We're simply trying to provide what we have today. To do anything less is a profound disservice to every resident of this town and the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District as a whole. As educators, we are asked every day to

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remember our why. And there ain't one day that we are not remembering our why. And you are in the seats that you are in tonight because your friends, your neighbors have voted for you. You have been elected. You volunteer your time because you say you are committed to

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this community. So, please use your voice now and use your privilege and duty that you have as representatives of this community to prove to these residents that the future of their children is your why. Do not let this be

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a moment where we choose to fail them. Thank you. Please state your name. >> Good evening. My name is Cynthia Grabbkkey and I am a teacher at Grace. I am here to speak for the critical funding of our school's library of media

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and digital literacy programs which may be cut if our schools are are not level funded. Our libraries are no longer just about books. They are essential laboratories for 21st century equity. In an age of

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information overload, our library media specialists are the instructors who teach students how to navigate the dig digital world safely and effectively. They provide the critical thinking skills needed to to evaluate facts and

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the techn technical skills required for today's workforce. By fully funding these services, we bridge the digital divide for every child. A budget reflects a community's priorities. I ask you to prioritize a

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future where our students remain techsavvy, competitive, and wellinformed. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Lisa Ayafrey. um a reading specialist at Grace. >> Hi, I'm Nicole Gracia. I'm the math specialist at Grace. Um first I'd like

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to thank you. I'm not I'm a Freetown resident, not a Lake resident, but I appreciate and understand the override three tier voting system. I like that. That's nice idea. Just want to put that out there. >> Sorry. Thank you. >> Nervous. I don't like to do this stuff. Uh good evening. Thank you for the

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opportunity to speak today. Um, as we said, we're the math and reading specialists at the Georgia RS Intermediate School, and we are here to respectfully ask the town of Lakeville to support a level service budget, one that allows us to maintain the staff and resources our students rely on every

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day. As the reading and math specialist at Grace, we see firsthand how critical targeted support is for our students. Our role is not supplemental, it's essential. We work with students to bridge gaps in learning that if left unressed can follow them throughout

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their academic careers. These gaps don't just affect their reading and math, they impact confidence, participation, and overall success in the classroom. When students receive individualized support, something powerful happens. They begin

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to believe in their abilities. They gain the skills they need to access the grade level content. They participate more. They take risks and grow, not just as readers and mathematical thinkers, but as learners. Without consistent support, many of

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these students risk falling further behind. But with it, we set them on a path toward success in middle school, high school, and beyond. A level service budget ensures we can continue providing this critical support. It allows us to meet students where they are and help

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them reach where they need to be. I urge you, we urge you to consider the long-term impact of this decision, not just on budgets, but on the futures of the students that we serve. Thank you for your time and your commitment to our schools.

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>> Thank you. >> Please state your name. >> Tony QP, 18 Von Street, Lakeville. Uh I'm also a teacher in Middlear too. So um I just want it what an amazing job number one that

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the students of Lakeville did coming up here and speaking. That is the advocacy that we need. And there's going to be a hearing on March 31st at the Ways and Means Committee uh Boston State House. Uh, I suggest that we get together as a community and have

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them represent us and and go to the state and say, "Look, the formula isn't working." We've heard that from members of of the community tonight and everyone that sits on these boards. So, we know that that is clear. I also have to say that, you know, when I came here

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tonight, I've sat in a lot of meetings in middle borrow and and looking at their budget crisis between uh select board and school committee and I was really kind of shocked when I came here because I see a town manager uh working

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with a group of people here and select board members and finance committee members and putting together this recommendation that I know is a very tough recommendation, especially especially for the elderly community here. And that is really where I see a

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lot of contention when you talk about Prop 2 and a half overrides. So, I I want the the elderly community to know that we uh realize that that that is a hardship, but if we don't invest in our children, and that is what everyone was

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saying, and they said it really so eloquently. I I had some things written and I I just don't even need to do it because it was just so well done by the students here and they've really made the point. But that brings me to kind of what has been going on and and I I

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realize that costs have been skyrocketing, but what has been really being done in Lakeville to try to mitigate this? We knew that costs were rising, right? But when I drive down Main Street in

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middle uh in Lakeville, I see five abandoned buildings still. And I've been here for 13 years now. Uh my my grandmother lived here, my mother lived here, and I still see this problem of things not moving forward. And I know

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that there's been a community uh development committee. I don't see that there's been any progress with that. Um, and I'm just looking at trying to find some type of solutions that will uh

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raise the tax base uh in some way. Some we talk about uh Andrew said there is not a lot of projected tax growth. There's not a lot of building happening. Um well, why not? Okay. So, I I I really

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think we have to solve some of these problems with having abandoned buildings on Main Street in Middle Lakeville. Sorry, you didn't say that because I've worked there. But again, conversely, in Middlear,

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uh, and I know that many of you shop there, you go to the Hannerford there, um, or or in, uh, town for supplies or or whatever it is that you need, but you see an explosion of growth, right, uh, behind the train station that went from

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Lakeville to Middlebar, and now there's housing being developed all around there. So there has to be some type of balance and that starts with our planning boards that starts with our select boards that starts with the

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people that we elect into those offices. So these decisions are so critical to our longevity and the what what we want to be as a community. So I would urge people and the it sounds like the students are really paying attention. So

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when those elections come up, we want to hear from the candidates. We want to hear, do they have a viable plan for the next 3 to 5 years? How are we going to support uh our elderly? Does it mean having a structured tax rate for people that make under a certain level uh of

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income that they're going to get taxed differently between people that have two houses here or something like that? Now, that has happened actually on the Cape. Um there was a Prop 2 and a half override on the Cape and they specifically said, "Hey, residents that

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live here full-time, that's one rate." And people that have that don't even live in the homes there, well, that's another because this is just a vacation home. So, I think that we can get creative and that's what I would encourage people to do. Do I think that we need this right now? Yes, we do. That

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I don't see a way out of it, but we need to plan for the future. I thank you guys very much. I thank everyone for all the work they're putting in. I know this is a hard conversation. Uh I support the schools 100%. My kids are going to go here. I'm going to be here for the rest of my life. Uh and I will be back up

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here talking again, you know, when when we need something else. But it takes time. It takes planning and working together. Thanks a lot. Please state your name. Thank you. >> My name is Jeremy Morray. I am a Lakeville resident and educator at

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Aponica Regional High School. I'm here tonight to support a Proposition 2 and a half operational override to provide level service funding to our schools. This is not about blame. It's about responsibility. Because if we do not fund our schools at a level service budget, the consequences are real and

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they are immediate. In our schools, that means fewer opportunities for students, fewer electives, fewer pathways. It means losing educators, programs, and experiences that define what our schools are. And once those are gone, they do not just come back. And this doesn't

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stop at the school doors. Strong schools are directly tied to strong communities. Property values, community pride, and the future of this town are all connected to what happens in our classrooms. We all share in this responsibility. This is not a divided issue. This is a community issue. And

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when I look around this room, I see my co-workers and my friends and the kids that come to my house on Halloween trick-or-treating. I see my family. And this is a community. This is all of our responsibility. So, let the residents decide. Bring this to ballot. Trust the

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people of Lakeville to show up, to be informed, and to make a decision about the future of their town. Because at the end of the day, this is not just about a budget. It's about whether Lakeville is willing to invest in itself. It's about whether we are a town that steps up when

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it matters or one that steps back and hopes for the best. And most importantly, it's about whether the people in this town today have the same or better or less opportunities than the generations that came before them. Let's

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choose to move forward together. speakers who would like to come up and speak tonight. >> Yeah, we got that. Ready? >> Okay. Should be interesting. Uh, my name is Rich Lamemer. I live at

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32 Pot House Road in Lakeville. Um, the first thing I want to bring up is the o override vote on June 23rd. If you wait until June 23rd and the override fails or both towns don't agree with the the

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regional budget, that forces a joint town meeting and that's not a good thing to have between everybody gets together on big room and it's not pretty. So, you ought to consider getting it before the uh town meeting. uh because then you'll

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know where you stand instead of voting saying, "Okay, this is subject to an override." That's not a very good idea to do that. Um the first thing I'd like to say is that uh you know, I've been here 52 years and I've served on many boards. Um

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town of Lakeville always supported their school systems. Always have supported their school systems over the years. So there's a couple of concerns that I have. Um Barbara mentioned the uh four firefighters that we had we hired you

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know based upon grant money that we were going to get and we didn't get that grant. Okay. So that immediately because we use certain funds onetime funds to get us to this point is causing a $400,000 revenue shortfall in the budget of going

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into this coming year. That's a pretty big number. The second thing is that you know hiring staff that we didn't have the funding to do that and this is not by the way this is not the existing town administrator's fault or the current finance director. This was done

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previously by the interim you know town administrator. So that's an issue. So but the big issue here is having to do with the school funding. Um you know overrides are failing left and right in the state of Massachusetts having to do with schools. I mean you can talk about

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Bridgewater Rainham you can talk about Wetman Hansen and a lot of school districts okay and I don't know all the particulars about that that those particular school districts but I do know for sure that the formula that's currently in place uh discriminates

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against school regional school districts you know specifically and that's a serious problem. I wish I was optimistic because I've been through this a number of times at the state house asking them, you know, to fix this formula, but I'm

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not optimistic. The the state has got a big budget problem, you know, this year themselves. And, you know, I think I don't know who it was said, well, they're going to they're going to increase the uh uh per pupil. Last year,

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the region got $300 a student. this year so far they've gotten $75 a student. So what they what they're doing now which is what is pending right as we speak is that they want to bring it to um another $75 which would bring it to $150.

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That is only a $200,000 increase for the region. I mean it's not a lot of money. Now, what concerns me even more than that has to do with the override itself that's being proposed. Um, the regional school

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district's assessment for this particularly this coming budget has gone from $729,000 for the budget that we're in right now through June 30th. Okay? And they're asking for $1.8 million. That's a huge

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increase, you know, to ask the towns to try to, you know, pay that. It's a They can't pay it. They're unable to pay it. They can't afford it. I mean, and it's just a terrible situation. Now, how we've gone from 729 assessment to $1.8

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million. Somebody needs to answer that question. Okay? And I'm not going to answer the question, but somebody needs to answer that question. Why it went up so much. Number one. Number two is it can you go back to the override amounts please?

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So town administrators uh recommending $2.6 million which is you know I mean I hate to say it but $1.8 million that $2.6 million is for the regional school districts. That's a lot of money. But what bothers me even more, and I know

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that that this has been talked about a number of times, that the regional school district's budget, I'm not picking on the regional school district, the school budgets in general are not sustainable. It's just impossible for us, you know, as a town of our size to

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be able to support that those kind of increases. So if you take the uh next year two 2028 and you're asking for $1.3 million, the preliminary budget that uh Andrew and Mike put together shows that

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the regional school district is is projected to increase by $1.3 million. So what does that mean? That means it's not enough money for everybody else. And unfortunately, you know, I don't want to see this to happen, but it's pitting the

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town against the other departments. That's just the wrong thing to do. So, the bottom line is I don't think that's enough. I don't think we're going to get out of that hole in a very short period of time. Now, you talked about, you know, some of the projects that's

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going on. Uh Tony talked about, you know, where is the uh where when we have all these empty buildings in town. The problem that we have is is that the word on the street is that Lakeville doesn't want business.

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That's the word on the street. Don't come to Lakeville. We don't want you. Big thing is there is no zoning for new business in town anywhere. And you know, you talked about the Lakeville Country Club, which is going to create more

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housing. You talked about the MBTA, which wants to bring more housing at the old tea station. You talked about um I feel the other one was Holland Road, which is a shame, but um you look at the Lakeville Hospital. I don't know if

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anybody knows the Lakeville Hospital project is not going forward with the 400 units of housing. They're not going forward. Nobody wants to invest in that and and I don't blame him quite frankly. So that once again is

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starting all over again for the Lakeville Hospital. God knows what's going to happen with that mess, but it's a mess. So, you know, I will gladly support the override that's here, but I got to tell you, I don't think it's enough. That's just me.

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>> Thank you very much. Hi, Julie Kobus, Village Road. I'll fully admit I did not come here with any intention of speaking, but I also feel like some of the things that were said tonight were really hard to hear and some of it was a big takeaway for me. So, a couple points. Um, sorry, I'm

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using my phone. uh as a parent of a senior at aonquit who's had a fantastic experience in this district and I think I know a lot of these children and they did a great job speaking to what's done in this district for our kids. I'm so proud that she came here. I also have a

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sixth grader. I'm hoping that he has the same experience, but having friends who have younger children in Bridgewater and some of the other neighboring towns that did not pass an override, there's definitely concerns. Um, listening to the presentation tonight,

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I'm even more committed to the idea of an override for a few reasons. One, it sounds like one of the big problems would be the insurance cost increases that we have. And if we cut, we lose the bulk pricing. Again, some of this I'm just restating because I don't feel like we could all hear in the back.

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Um, another thing that I've heard and one of the other concerns I had coming here tonight was the valuable revenue resource that we have with our ambulances and our fire and the services they provide. I know we're already committed to a new fire station. So, if we cut those resources, I feel like

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that's a valuable source of revenue that we might not have access to anymore when we already have a new building coming. So, I don't know that cuts there are worthwhile. And lastly, we risk losing valuable education resources here, which I'm again very proud to hear them all

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speaking about. Um, I have friends that are on the staff, just the teachers that I've seen over the years and the st I've been on the PTO boards in multiple schools here. And we're very severely undercompensated, I would say, our staff versus some of the other districts in

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Massachusetts. And um even if you don't have children or grandchildren in the district, I feel like it's still encouraging and like having a strong school system helps our property values if that's the incentive. Um but I think it's very important to keep it simple. I

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do feel like some of the the multi-step override might be confusing to people and I want it to pass. So however makes it understandable to people and lets people know what's at stake. Um, I think all these services together strengthen the wholesome fabric of our rural

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community and just make us stronger as a whole. So, thank you all for what you do and >> thank you very much. >> Tony, you taking the second bite of the apple? >> Yeah. Tony QP 18 Foster. I just wanted to address some of the things that that

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Rich was saying. Um, and I forgot to mention too that one of the uh real high costs to uh Freetown Lakeville is is the out of uh district uh funding that we

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send towards uh Old Colony uh and charter schools. Um, so when when I think about that too, one of the things I mean I teach manufacturing and technology at Middlebar High School in a space that I helped develop and when

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students come from the middle school to look uh whether they want to go to Middle High School or they want to go to BP. One of the draws for them now is that we have a shop space in an

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innovation lab where students can work with their hands to not only gain uh carpentry skills, uh some light manufacturing skills, electrical and plumbing skills. Uh but that is such a

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big need. And so in my eyes, that's why you have such a large increase because what students hear in school is, well, what am I going to do when I leave high school? And what they're hearing right now is people that are in the trades

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make good money, so why wouldn't I want to do that? You know, so I can't blame students for want to do that. But if we don't invest actually and think about how we're doing education in uh Lakeville and Freetown Lakeville public schools in the actual public schools,

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then we should be taking some money and investing in those type of programs so that all students have the option to get a feel. Is that something that they want to do? That's point one. Um, next is the the Lakeville Hospital

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because it I've been around for a little while and we've been talking about that and Rich is correct for a long time and that that is not going forward. And that brings me to those creative solutions that we're trying before. Now, we've

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said there's really no zoning for that. Well, the the Lakeville Hospital is zoned business mixeduse. We've already gone through the lawsuit on that one, right? You remember that because they wanted to change it to be industrial so that we could have a trucking facility

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or whatever it was, a giant warehouse on Main Street in Lakeville. And the Lakeville uh voters didn't think that that was appropriate and actually the the judge said it wasn't. So that was that point. Now to this to that point again since Rhino Capital wants to leave and

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and wash their hands with it and and not do any investment there. I think it's time for the select board to consider taking the Lakeville hospital back by eminent domain and that means that they would control >> this. No way.

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>> Hold on. Nope. No comments, please. So, so I would love to hear some creative solutions because again I haven't seen anything move forward in my 43 years here on it. Um, so >> Mr. I'd like to answer your question.

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>> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, so the Rhino Capital currently owns that property. It's under an LLC, so it doesn't attach to their parent company. So if there was to to we would put a lean on it and that we would actually be

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able to take it by eminent domain, we would have to first make it safe. So what making it safe would be would be a 24-hour watch for 365 days a year and that would be $500,000 a year. >> So in addition to that, one moment please. In addition to that, if we went

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for Brownfield's mediation, that takes about 13 years. So, we're looking at $500,000 for 13 years just for watching that building. Additional to that, the cost for cleaning up that site for a for a non-public entity is somewhere between

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10 and 15 million. For a public entity, that doubles. So, what taking on the hospital project would mean for a municipality of our size is $500,000 a year minimum plus owning that property and having a debt of $20 million to

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clean it up. So, if if you're asking why it has been such a sore point for years over years and it has not going gone anywhere, that's one of the factors. So, I just wanted to call that out because I know it seems like the really quickest

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route to get rid of that would be doing it that way, but it would be incumbent on us to do a lot of things that would put us in further financial distress. So, I just wanted to call that out. >> Fair point. Fair point.

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What I would say then though is what has the economic development committee looked at as viable options to bring any type of revenue into town? Whether it's then a split tax rate for people in the industrial zone to to say look should

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they be paying the same rate of taxes as uh COA people and and elderly people? That would be one. What about the other buildings that are around that property? And further, could there be

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I if we did take something like that, it it does sound very costly and that we would need to approve some type of debt exclusion for that. But then long-term thinking, could we use that under our own purview to gain revenue back?

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>> I don't know. I it does sound like a very very costly thing and we've been through this and and I know I'm just looking for solutions that are not just hey let's raise everybody's taxes which I think >> perspective but thank you very much for the vote

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>> do one more one more person yep >> audience can you please be quiet so we can hear >> Tony I just want to clarify what I said I was not talking about the Lakeville hospital I knew The Lakeville Hospital was already zoned business. I'm talking about other areas in town. We have no

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other areas in town to reszone for business. And that's a problem. And that's what we need to do in order to increase this tax base. That's not a big burden on the tax base taxpayers. We have to bring more business into town.

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Period. And we haven't done that. >> All right. I think that concludes all of our speakers. Would anyone from the administration like to have anything to say about this? >> Yeah. So, I would say there's um three,

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I guess, big decisions that need to have to be made tonight or at some point in the early uh not so distant future. Um one and and number two are both basically the same. What kind of structure do we want to see for an override? There's about 15 different ways. This is one I would recommend

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whether the numbers change up or down. Um it's always possible. Um but the amounts so the structure and the amount that the select board and finance committee would support. Um and then obviously the biggest one is the election date. So to simplify this um

428
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because I think there's going to be a bunch of things floating around. If someone wants to make a motion for the override and for the total amount as one of the votes and then we can vote on the

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structure as a second and the date as a third. I just want to if we vote for one particular number, can we vote it higher if we need if we've made the decision to do so? I'm just concerned that if we if

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we do this number, this is the number we're sticking with. >> It's my understanding that we can vote another number prior to it going on the ballot. And that is my understanding. >> Yeah, we don't have the ballot language in front of you, so we can change it up

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until that point. So up until the ballot is >> set in stone as it were. >> Other comments. >> Can I what is the percentage of the overall going? >> Can you come speak at the

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lecture? >> Hi Chris Baker Lane. I just want to know what the percentage is. Uh the dollar amount does mean no good, but if you have a percentage of what the override is, if it's two and a half percent and then you have to override that, is it 8%

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more? Is it 10% more? >> I see Andrew masking it out right now. >> More Mike than me, but >> I can I can try to give you that figure. I don't have it in front of me at the moment. Um but I can work on it while the board takes a vote if you'd like.

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Sure. >> Do you have an approximate percentage? Um, >> just take this opportunity to thank everyone that spoke. I know public speaking is not for everyone and everyone did really well tonight. So, thank you.

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It's about 8% that first year. >> 8%. >> Inclusive of two and a half. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So again, I'd like the vote to be if for an override or against um in the

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total amount for the first vote >> a vote for or get or a motion for or against an override and have an amount tied to that. So if you total if say if you were going to go for the three-year >> it was the total

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>> you would say I vote for an override in the amount of and then you would add up the lines of the requests. >> Does anyone have your calculator up and add up those lines of the request? >> $4,915,700. >> Chris,

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>> is there any other question? for a motion. >> Okay. I'd like to have someone give a motion. >> I guess are we doing the >> first >> the whole or the one year I guess is the question? >> The whole. >> So it would be again the whole amount.

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>> Okay. >> Of it and affirm that it is an override proposition 2 and a half override in the amount of So, it should be phrased, I would like to make a motion for an override in the

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amount of 2 million. Well, nine blah blah blah. And and that would be the first vote out of the series of three. And then we would talk about the structure and the date and two other votes. I'd like them independent.

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>> I guess I'll start I'll start the bidding. Um I'll make a motion um to pursue an override in the amount of $4,915,700. Do I have a second for an override

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in the amount of $4,915700? >> Madam Chair, this is to be structured uh through the years of 2027 through 2029. We would structure it in the second vote to make it clear. >> All right. I will second that motion. >> We have a motion and a second for an

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override for 4 million 915700. Any further discussion from the select board? >> Roll call. I

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>> I tanini I >> right eye. >> Manovsky I >> cost n >> I. >> Thank you very much everyone. The second part of the vote is going to

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be the more confusing part of the vote. So the second part of the vote is going to speak to the way that the override will be structured. So if someone wants to make a motion to have it over 3 years, they would

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specifically say they would make a motion for to have it for 2027 at 2615700, 28 at uh 1.3, 2029 at 1, and so on so forth. If they wanted to make it for one

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year, they would use the motion to say that they would like the total override amount to be for 2027 and then they would use the one-year amount of 4915700 >> madame chair. >> Yes. >> Uh I have a question for Andrew. Uh when

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you originally proposed this, you mentioned that there were other methodologies that you had considered and this was sort of the the first of your choices. Um could you describe two others that were runners up to this um methodology? >> Yes. So one that was mentioned by member

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uh it's a they call it a menu override. Um basically you list out the different functions of government. I've seen public safety, general government, schools listed out. Another one is um just one number

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for one year. Um that's so that's that's three now I guess. Um >> I like that one. >> So >> thank you. >> I like the menu. >> Yep. >> Ready? >> I will take a motion whenever anyone's ready.

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I'd like to make a motion that we structure it. I started with separating schools from uh municipal government. Um I think we could structure that over

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three years. Can with amounts to be determined later. >> Can we can we do that? Have we did total amounts? I guess we can do months to determine later. I think it makes it more confusing, but >> well, we can we'll vote on we'll after discussion.

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>> I'd like to >> Can you say that vote that >> again for the audience? >> Oh, me. >> Yeah. So my motion would be that we separate schools from municipal government

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structured over three years. The amounts to be determined later. >> You mean how to split up that 4.9 million? >> Correct. >> Hate to do this, but I don't know if it's necessarily allowed. Uh it would

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probably end up being six uh well yeah probably six ballot questions as opposed to three but I can find out >> I mean it's a more of a question for town council be confusing >> another comment one moment

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>> you just say we could do a menu button >> Larry hold on >> member carbon first >> I'm sorry member Carboni >> forgiven Um so not to confuse the issue with the ballot and you know two questions.

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Um when we put our recommendation together um and we bring it to town floor, we do have the school budget amount and we do have our general government budget amount. And so town floor would be where we would vote to um

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support either one. >> Understand? But I'd like the ballot to align with that process. >> I think the ballot would have to align with the process before it would go. Um because it would be a voted amount. >> Yeah. Um it just it's one of those

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things where you could put a number but then you have to appropriate at those town meetings in those given years. So it would kind of handcuff us I think. >> So I would say that we need a number with that motion in order to make it a

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valid motion for the purpose of the ballot. >> Correct. >> So decide now the allocations and the town versus So you probably you probably could do what you're saying. You could probably list it out. I mean towns I've seen towns do one question where they list

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out multiple uses how you're saying. So it would be it would still be probably three ballot questions, but we list it out general government versus schools. So, Andrew, the motion would be that they would list it out in the in the

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2027 bucket, the 2028 bucket, the 2029 bucket, and just use the total requests from that bucket. And then the motion would say that um percentages to be determined prior ballot or I I just want to make

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sure we're >> the amount, not the percentage. So it would have a specific amount tied to each one, >> but then we'd have to tie the amount before the ballot went out. >> Whereas then I think that is a little

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unclear at this juncture to the audience on what the breakout would be if we did that. So and that would >> Yeah, we we'd have to do it. We don't have that right now. >> Yeah. Yeah. So it in order for clarity,

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we would have to have those numbers. Now to do that, unless you just had one vote and you wanted to split it out on one year and you had that as a motions,

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I think we need a constitutional scholar here. Um, this is a Yeah, I've never heard of a six-part. It would be it would be three three questions but it it would list out um kind of how we probably next

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um so where it says public schools it would say a number but municipal government it' be a number so it would say two 2.615700 but then it would actually list out what would be allocated to those two functions. >> Yes. So that's how the vote would have to be. >> Yeah. Just

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>> are you still voting on it as one number at that point? >> Right. three three. >> Can you repeat that? >> So, if you we're showing the breakdown, but you're still voting yes on the total number. >> The whole number would remain the same. It's how it's a portion that would be

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different. >> So, if if someone voted for it, they can't change the numbers. It is what it is. If they voted against it, you can't approve one number and not the other. They're they're tied together. >> You're raising the tax um appropriation. you're reaching the tax uh levy, but

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you're not actually appropriating that money. So, that's the cap of what you could give from that new levy limit to those functions. Um, but you can go to town meeting and have a different number. >> I think it lacks transparency not to have the number question,

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>> Madam Chair. >> No, I was saying I think it lacks transparency not to have the number voted because I I don't want it to be, >> you know, someone can say 1% I don't think that's kind of the intent obviously, but I think it doesn't become

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a concrete vote. >> I think we're making this more confusing than it needs to be. >> So, by all means, I would love to hear your suggestion on how to uncomplicate that.

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>> Three questions. BC >> the the only the only question I guess I would have for for select person Blanca who I tremendously respect is and I know this is kind of thrown at us right like we're all kind of going on the fly here we didn't know about the menu option had

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did you had you given any thought to this is there a reason why you felt that that would be uh a a good yes thank you >> yeah I I want to clearly noted the amount that would be allocated to the municipal government versus the school department.

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>> But wouldn't we determine that in our budget >> every year? >> Absolutely. We will, but I want that part of the >> regardless of what's on there. We're going to decide how much is going to the school. >> Well, I'd like that to be a part of the ballot question is and I think Andrew, you did say that we could it could be

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one question, but with the amount broken out >> ju just as a hypothetical for the second year 1.3, you don't have to fund the schools to their level fund. You can do it whenever you want just

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hypothetically. So you can't appropriate a future year is what I'm basically saying. I'm saying >> correct. >> Do you still want to make your motion? >> The menu still I if if we were to move forward with my

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motion where we specify the amount for schools versus municipal government, we would have to come up with that number tonight is what you're saying. Or could we could can we define that later? It just say it's the three ballot questions >> total amount per ballot question with

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the allocation determining later. >> So my only fear with that is it's not very transparent to the >> to the people >> what the intent is and what the percent is. >> We haven't we haven't discussed it yet. >> Make a motion.

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>> Make a motion. We have a motion on the >> No, I >> Okay. >> Okay. I I will withdraw. >> Do we have another motion? >> Member. >> Madam Chair, as as thrilled as I am with cage matches, I'm glad that that was

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withdrawn. Um I would I would make a motion that we follow the format that was presented to us. by uh the town administrator with question 1A

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at 2,615700, question 1B at $1.3 million and question C at $1 million. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion from the select board? Can I ask a question? How you're

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funding old Colony B and the agricultural school? Is that off is that within the town budget or is that in the educational budget? Because you only have the budget for Freetown Lakeville and separated that one piece up. So

484
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where does the rest of the school funding come from? >> I'm trying to find the relevance to this vote on this. We're voting on an override which is the entire town and all the educational funding.

485
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>> But you only your numbers are only for free though. If you separate that out >> I don't understand the if you want to come up to the lectern. >> It was all schools. It was it was all the schools. >> They're all >> that's everybody.

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>> It's for an override. >> So just to reiterate the override is for every single thing we fund. It is not carved out for Freetown Lakeville. It is not carved out for anything. This is an override on the entire budget of the

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town of Lakeville. >> Okay. >> Can I just go off that >> ladies first? >> But if we're pulling if you're pulling out and putting a second question within it regarding the budget for the >> That was that was removed from the

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>> We're not We're not doing that. >> That was removed. not doing it >> for all three years. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yes. That option was removed off the Thank you. >> Uh Bob Marshall from 16 Bar Street also on the Old Colony School Committee. I'm

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very glad you asked that question. Uh and Andrew and I are on the same page literally. Uh if you look here uh the second column 2007 and look over Old Colony regionals you see the 2805929

490
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that is the budget figure that Old Colony presented for FY27. That's the next school year. And I'm assuming and I I asked uh Mike and Andrew before the

491
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meeting. I'm assuming that means that the FINCOM uh select board and and our administrators are uh putting forth what we asked for for the next school year. So to answer

492
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your question, I think I'm answering it. That's where the money for Old Colony would be. We only send a few maybe a few individuals to Bristol Plymouth who might want a program that Old Colony doesn't provide and the law provides

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that to happen. So I don't know how that would work, but Old Colony's number as I understand it is is in the the overall budget. >> And clarification, this is the town administrator budget. I have a motion and a second.

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>> Select board. Roll call vote. >> Hunt. >> I. >> Candy. I >> Carboni. I >> finance committee. >> Tenini. >> I tanini.

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Right. I >> Manovsky I >> Cost nay. >> Um before I let I just say with the ballot we just need to make sure it's clear on what people are voting for like because I can see if they select number three does that mean that covers all three or do they have to select all

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three at the same so we just need to make it clear but feels I >> thank you. The last vote is actually just for the select board and it's the date. say 623.

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I've given my reasons why I think having it after town meeting um would be inadvisable. I'm not sure how other members of the board feel, but technically I believe we could vote

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for any day between that's not a a Sunday or a holiday between May 1st and June 6th. Is that accurate? >> Yes. You just need 35 days before

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whatever date you choose before you vote it. >> Yeah. So, anything in May would be would be prior to town meeting, which is on the 9th. >> Is it the is it a Monday or a Tuesday? >> The nth.

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>> It's the 8th. Okay. So, town meeting on the 8th. >> Would anyone like to make a motion for the date of the override vote? >> Through you, Madam Chair. What day do we typically do our override over?

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>> I mean, our ballots. Is it usually Monday or Tuesday? I know what election day is usually Mondays, right? >> We've done Tuesdays and Saturdays, haven't we? >> Yes. >> The main issue is that this is the spot of elections and they're quite busy that

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time of year with weddings. >> Oh, yeah. That's not my concern. Um, but not >> we we can reach out to the schools as well. Back during Lupon Lodge construction, we had voting at the schools. Um I I think they would welcome

503
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us with open arms. >> The school will welcome you with open arms. So >> do we have April vacation? >> We do. >> Can you do >> is that the 11th?

504
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>> April 20th, which is >> Oh, okay. All right. So, now we're in May. We could avoid weddings if we did it during the week. Correct. >> Any issues with April 18th? >> I'm I'm sorry. May 18th. I keep thinking

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April May. >> Sorry. >> Do you want to make the motion? I >> think the consensus is everyone's available. It's a Monday. >> Do you mean to do a Monday >> or a Tuesday?

506
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>> I don't have an either way. I just want to make sure you're voting for what you want. >> I just want to make sure that we have enough time to get the word out clearly. So, I think that that we would be good. So, all right. I'll throw it out there.

507
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Um I'll make a motion to schedule um the override ballot election for Tuesday, May 19th. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Motion and second. Any further

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discussion? >> Hearing none. Roll call. >> I >> Andy do I. Carbon. I. Thank you. I appreciate everyone coming out and thank you very much.

509
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>> Please go ahead. >> Make a motion for the finance committee to end our meeting. >> So moved. >> They don't want to stay. >> And I go up there.

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I'm going to call for brief recess. >> I have a motion for brief recess. >> Brief recess. Just a recess cuz it's too loud to hear. Thanks, Larry.