##VIDEO ID:-k6Sc15Rmq8## welcome everyone to the Joint finance committee select board budget uh hearing first fy6 we have a pretty um library clerk Human Resources lctv assessing Department accounting department Serge and collector veterans agent uh bunch of small little departments that will take care of and their employee benefits in Insurance hope to be out of H you have anything to start with jimim no just uh just we can just quickly touch base uh run through we get the next couple next next on the 28th we have the school department parks and wreck um Elder Human Services Planning and Zoning building department it Town Administrator facilities select board uh Finance uh Reserve fund and then on Super Saturday Super Saturday um February 1st we have conservation Board of Health Cemetery police fire DPW and a joint discussion regarding f126 capital and operating budgets and um first uh first up as you said Mr chairman is the library and the uh library is uh on the budget books in page 249 Hi Sam hi hey uh Sam Alvarez Library director so I'm just going to talk some major accomplishments we've had this past year um beginning with uh staff professional development um this year we focused on increasing what our staff could um best study and develop in their profession to help our patrons uh we help professional development days which staff Le professional consultants and how to deal with difficult patrons with mental health issues how to understand lgbtq patrons um learned about the growth of AI and chat GPT and all staff became CPR and AED certified and we had more staff attending local um conferences and I also became mental health first aid certified um by working with the Board of Health um we've also seen an increase in attendance over the past year in programming uh in all departments in children's teen and adults um that's due to our increase in programming with things like um author author talks um offering um more programs for arts and crafts um stem programs for the teens um we now have a new 3D printing um service available that just went live uh about a week or two ago and um more book clubs including a book club at digible so off-site book clubs um and of course the regular programs that we've had like summer winter reading and uh mini golf um and moving forward one of the goals we have is to me is to work with the library trustees to prepare a new fiveyear strategic plan that will provide to the mblc so for capital budget requests there are no capital budget requests that we're making right now because we have a new library so none right now at the moment um moving forward the only thing we can anticipate is maybe replacing worn out Furniture um the furniture gets pretty well used by patrons every day um uh we're trying to maintain it as best we can but um right now that's the only thing I can anticipate in maybe two or three years okay so the budget I originally requested was um for two new positions um one was for a team librarian or assistant new Services librarian for the team um the team room and a 37 and a half hour um Adult Services librarian position and to increase the children's Librarians hours from 35 to 37 and a half hours and um to increase office um Supply requests from $11,000 to $2,500 and the regular increase that we ask for um for books every year to maintain our state aid requirements and um an increase in mvlc so um yeah so that um all came out to 1 m338 in my original request so in the revised operating budget um basically the team librarian request um looks like the finance team agrees with that request um and the that would come out to about $55,100 teams in there every day um it's been pretty busy in there um teens are coming up from the middle school and the high school and um we really need another professional position in there um the position is key to supporting the youth services team they can help with program development um increase the programming we offer they can help the teen librarian to either um support her in her collection development activities or to do some collection development themselves um they can help conduct Outreach to school and Community organizations they can help the teams with any Technology support they might have um they can help create a safe space for the teens um a lot of the teens especially some of our lgbtq teens um they depend on our staff you kind of talk to sometimes um they also can offer mentorship and um any kind of feedback um the other request I had to increase the children's Library 37 and a half hours that's to keep them equal with um the ya librarian the ya librarian is currently at 37 and a half hours and um the children's Librarian Is at 35 and um basically they've been at 35 for a while now um but they they tend to use a lot of overtime because the children's position um requires a lot of work um so being in that room in the children's room the children's librarian gets asked a lot of questions by patrons by moms parents um caregivers and so when especially when they're working on program sometimes they they need the extra time to just work on things that you know come out so that's why I'm requesting the extra two and a half hours for that position also the the children's librarian will most likely be um retiring soon so in the future that would make that position more um competitive move forward when we look for a new children's Library um the other um expenses that came up like I said were um office supplies so office supplies right now um we uh currently we've been at $1,000 per year and we kind of we Prett much use that up by the first quarter um it's um pretty much because of it's it's a lot of supplies that go into to provideing F Patron use actually so like things like Printing and and paper and things like that um and then as I said before the um the MVC fees are also going up um they haven't gone up in the last few years um primarily due to um you know things like uh budget and the pandemic and so every year the the directors voted not to increase the mvlc fees but now almost five years in that increasing fees has kind of caught off with them and so they um requested that all libraries increase fees and mvlc is important because um it they provide our computer support and um they help us with our inal library loans and with reciprocal funding so it's an important service that we can't do without um yeah so um projected 5-year operating needs so as I said the 37 and a half hour position was not approved by the finance team but I would like to see that position created in the near future um an adult service Services librarian would um support staff um right now patrons sort of see so an adult Services librarian will basically help with um adult Acquisitions adult programming um helping with reference questions um basically a lot of the stuff that I and my assistant director do right now but um obviously I have other responsibilities as director and my assistant director also has responsibilities and so it's sort of extra work that we're adding on when we a lot of the time the staff has to kind of take on a lot of things so an adult Services librarian could be that person that the staff would go to so like let's say a patron comes to the desk and asks question the staff doesn't have to stop they doing the circulation desk and go and and help maybe take 20 30 minutes to help a patient with a reference question we can just have an adult Services librarian to to do that for um so right now it's either them or it's me or my assistant director which means I have to stop and whatever I'm doing and and go help patreon I don't mind doing but it's you know it's just a lot so also they could help with programming and um any acquisition needs and so that's really CL position that um could help us out yeah so yes what percentage of the checkouts um coming through M BLC I I didn't see maybe I missed it ballp Park so what do you mean um well well the books come in and materials come in through the MC Library loan you mean yeah Library Lo it says it says in here 23% of the borrowing is between Littleton and other libraries yeah so 23% of our or our um lending goes to other libraries um so you know maybe Bren or hand over Sam um I think youold the uh the increase in usage of the library I mean 1,200 a month to 3,200 a month I mean yeah I I think if we have any other department saying that their usage had poose to tripled they' be asking for more than an extra two and a half hours yeah it certainly has increased since we built the new library we've seen a it's been very popular here um just in the morning when we sometimes even before we open sometimes people find their way in to the building and we have to you know tell them not open yet um there people who were very interested in using the building um at night who want to you know want to help them out but there's only so much weat P all the the others you know the librarian specialize in librarian librarian the te Library section isn't busy is that second person able to fill in where it live to help out the adult section things like that um yeah we we already do that now right now everybody on staff kind works everywhere um but um it's we really need this position to it's it's always busy kind of just always busy down there um so it's it's that doesn't really come up um and there's always a need for you know someone to be giving something up you don't want standing a hot chocolate5 so um Sam on in your in your spreadsheet of the budget it doesn't list the trust funds materials um and like programming and things like that are all zero because they're paid for out of because they're not pound supplied right so right now the friends um pay for about10 to 12,000 just for Museum passes and they also spend about 10 to 15,000 last year on programming for summer and winter reading and just miscellaneous other programming we have throughout the year so the friends um have been paying for that the trustees now that um we're kind of set with everything they've been contributing also funds to um for things like professional development um they provide $155,000 for additional funding for books um they provided about 5 to 7,000 for professional development um we had to get new computers because the computers we had um we originally purchase for the library um for the staff were purchased during the pandemic and as you all know uh it was hard to find um computers that were actually any good so it um like it used to take me 30 minutes when I would turn on my computer in the morning just to be able to do anything with it um and so we um purchased some new computers for the staff and then Tom has been going around and he added um some solid state drives to the patron computers so the trustees paid for that so that the computers actually are operational when we need them to be and um so yeah so the this the trustees have um agreed to um provide up to30 $40,000 a year to cover extra things like programming um and that's so that's why I took programming off of the because it's already covered by the friends and the trustees so um I thank you for all of that um it would just be nice if in the narrative you actually said how much the trustees and the friends were providing because it makes it look like you're running the library on much less money than you really are right um so that's why I was asking the question one other line I see that Professional Services is zero to three of the four years on is that sustainable or is that you know uh so professional we don't really have Professional Service except for professional that we needed so um and like I said trust we can cover that okay see thank you Sam all right thank you very much thank you Sam as a um as a point of reference for uh I just want to know it's all good s thank you uh the all I know that in the in the past you have wanted proposed uh requests those are outlined on page 31 that was that was requested and on page 32 was what we were able to uh fulfill okay um we have uh next up our town clerk and uh for those of you with a book it's on page 145 want start your meeting we're in in session yeah one of the thing I excuse me one I should have mentioned is Ryan and Jim have given us a balance budget so if we hear anything that needs to be added to the budget we need to come up with ways to cut something because we balance making your list as we go along and you're writing down something that says yeah this sounds good trying to figure out a way to pay for it also okay no pressure D no pressure whatsoever good evening ding Cy town clerk thank you for having me so this evening we're talking about Town Clerk and elections major accomplishments for the basically the calendar year 24 year 2025 census 100% was sent out 95% was returned um in the past we've had 90% sometimes less than that um we were pretty fortunate this last year to get 95% we had to send out uh three different mailings to get to that 95% and we actually were receiving um census from last year within the last week so people were still returning last year census within the last week people don't understand the importance of the census but um it's really key for people to be returning census because we get monies from federal government from the state government election 100% absentees were mailed out and mailed back in requests were sent out including four elections two primaries one local and one General so over 10,000 um mailings were sent out to for to the residents over 4,000 for our um General in November about 2500 for our two primaries and about 3500 for our main election that we had for our local election uh for our um PRS 100% were completed and on time whether was for the town clerk's office or others in the town um introduction of our clickers and pole pads were key last year many people were really pleased with the clickers during our town meetings and couldn't believe how quickly we were able to get through questions last year and our poll pads were really key during our election time we were able to um not only during our town meeting but during our elections we were able to get people through in between seven and 10 seconds check people in really quickly and easily and people were really pleased and another goal was the Integrity of all elections always as you all know we had a a turnover in um employees last year this actually this last year um in uh June Kim went to the assessor's office and we were able to bring in Andrew we were able to snag him from Harvard we had a little over two years um over in Harvard and he's been a pleasant surprise to have with us and and hopefully he'll work out as you all know I'm running for reelection and looking for this to be my last year and trying to groom him into the condition our department goals for 2026 is to continue training for the Department which is very key if we are looking down the road to um groom him into the clerk's position continue to stay effective and efficient in all aspects for residents and voters we're looking to finish binding all of the vitals which we have U grant money which we receive from CPA funding upgrade of technical department technology resources and services to better accommodate residents and voters and introduced a new electronic permitting platform for dog licensing reducing processing time for residents and staff as well reduce the cost for seniors 70 and over they now receive their dog licenses for free fiscal year 2026 clerk elections capital budget requests we're looking for $22,800 which I introduced last year it's for four machines and they are actually um the fourth generation last year uh we looked talked about it and thought it would be the third generation it's now going to be the fourth generation we're looking for four as you well know the machines that we are currently using are now over 24 years old we're not just looking to replace them for the sake of replacing them it's du due to the fact that parts are starting to become obsolet what is the availability of the equipment is it relatively readily available if you buy it in July you'll get it in August sure so what we have to do is there's a so first we have to vote on it in May right then we have to come back to the select board to get a vote from the select board to say that yes they approved the purchasing of it so if the select board don't hold you up if the select board do not hold us up then I have to go to the state with uh the vote from both the town meeting and the select board show them what we're looking to purchase they have to give us the authorization to go out and purchase and then we have to then we can do the purchase LHS has them readily available but it'll be about six months between everything that happens so we're looking so if we do it right after May hopefully we'll have a um within six months any needs in the fall yeah um and is four enough or will we need five we'll be fine yeah that'll give us I'm not looking we don't think that we'll need to go to a fourth um Precinct right now but so that'll give us three and a spare what is the population break that charge you to the rec 12,000 12 and we only have right now we only have um 7,000 voters it's 12,000 voters voters the next is a copy of the okay so the budget um right now we're just looking for both Andrew and myself to move up um step and fenes are 12,300 um if you were to look at what we're doing we have um kept our Professional Services the same our office supplies went up by about $200 our postage we decreased by two $2,000 and our dues and subscriptions we decreased by $500 so the the postage um I was a little bit concerned at first because the under the U postage the census falls under that um we just did a check for this year's census which was about $2,400 but in considering um the different needs in different departments and what we can do I can actually take um postage out of Elections for census because it does actually fall into that category as well because we do use census information for elections so I know that that extra $500 which will probably be the cost next year out of election so not as concerned as I initially was when we reduced it by $2,000 so the total cost for expenses $12,300 elections um $44,000 we um that is for the assistant town clerk overtime so that is for our Saturday elections and all the overtime that is spent for um our town meeting and our um elections that we have whether it's local or um our state elections so we have to put in them in that into our budget because he does get overtime so you're planning for a fall election and a yes spring election yes yep expenses we went up on the expenses because we are looking at a fall town meeting um and also the election so we had to increase uh the to meeting election data processing so the extra election I have to have that money's in there to uh provide for our um machines to be processed for the data processing and then the Electronic Services we have the pole pads we have 12 pole pads and they are used for um our town meetings and our elections and they take care of all of the um data processing that goes into all those pull pads as well as take care of to be sure that they're ready to go so we send all that data information to LHS they pull it all together they send us the information and we're good to go with that so they process all that us so I did have one question on your expense um is the police details if I read in the narrative you weren't holding in-person early voting for The Town elections correct is that correct so what do you need so we we've did we kept that figure there and in case we need it if we keep going up and down up and down people are going to say well why are we this year and why are we next year why so we keep it level then we give it back to the end of the cycle and so that's a line item if we really needed to cut we could because you're not likely to spend it that's correct y okay thank you so so that whole figure is 59300 um projected 26 to 35y year operating needs looking forward with the replacement of the voting machines replacing the voting boost thanks to lwd new pole pads and clickers the election division should be good so the the light time gave you booths yes so uh I had gone to um the um select board one meeting um they allowed allowed me to go to them for a grant which was enabled through the state and so they are giving us $15,000 um on the police details you're still going to need a detail town meeting you still detailed speci fall town meeting yes and the elections right yes so we have um the election that's a 16-hour day uh the two uh Town meetings we have two police officers for that the duration of the two Town meetings so I don't I can't cut it fully but I could cut it significantly okay so you won't use them for the prev voed we don't do prevote um for our own elections so we did we do do it for our state elections and state primary State okay when we did so when we did pre um voting for local election if we got 50 people to come in to do the early voting that was high number we got huge numbers in November we had a, people that actually um early voted in person for the November election so that was it was worthwhile to have that okay any else for danan good thank you thank you next is uh Michelle B Resources Director and in your books it's on page 14 good evening Michelle vibert Human Resources Director um thank you for having me tonight I'll just run through a couple of accomplishments that we have had over the last calendar year one of the biggest ones is a lot of our departments um as you just heard have been asking for a training um and development and our professional development line item allows other departments to reap the benefits of that we have helped many departments with supervisory training seminars conferences really attending anything related to their their field of work um we've had employees attend procurement trainings and other things as well we've streamlined a lot of processes um most of a lot of our job is to help all other departments and three of the biggest pieces of that is the hiring pre-employment and recruitment process a lot of what we do really needs to be quick and efficient on this end because people without staff um that work Falls to somebody else in their department and we always need to be able to mitigate for that so we have created forms um a lot of what we've done is create systems and forms to put in place for these departments so it makes their process more efficient it allows them to know where we're at in the process which can be lengthy for some positions our staff engagement committee which is made up of seven um of our non-un employees really works on employee recognition and engagement and as you know some of you may know this has come up over the last several years on really making Littleton the best place to work um and what does that is the environment um that goes from recognition to engagement to a lot of the things that um sometimes we don't always always recognize ourselves so we've worked with the committee to put events in place um we've established over the last year events such as the ice cream social we had a a truck that at their Leisure the staff would come out um stop for five minutes get an ice cream of their choice and then and then go back to work we've had crafts uh for Flag Day we had popsicles in the break room they could again go at their Leisure and get a popsicle we had a Halloween uh we did costume contest we did a decorated turkey contest they were to decorate their door with a Turkey um and really people we've noticed people are really getting involved which which is a change over the last several years one of the biggest sides of employee recog which we are touching on now uh we are planning to do an annual recognition event um which is more the side of managers recognizing their employees other staff recognizing other staff really getting the managers involved in doing that that bulk of the thank yous um is it could go from you know somebody working above and beyond to just a thank you with help helping me on that and we don't do enough of that so we're trying to make an actual annual event to recognize all of our employees townwide the Personnel advisory committee um as you know they have a different scope of work and working with HR and evaluating job descriptions that come up over the year um maybe staff fails that their job description doesn't capture what they've done maybe it's changed because of a new task or a function that they've taken on so the Personnel advisory committee reviewed roughly 20 job descriptions that doesn't mean they've all changed um but it takes time and and a lot of effort to go through each job description with the Department with the employee with the manager and then bring it back to the Personnel advisory committee for their recommendation on if any changes should be made we've started to review I put this as an accomplishment um because policies and procedures as you know can always change um and they can sometimes be revised to make them um to improve them so recently we've worked on the Personnel bylaw and the employee handbook these two books are are manuals um it drives everything we do in the HR department and helps us enforce everything we do from procedures to policies so these two books are very important um and we need to get them basically back to a structure where we can maintain them going forward so phase one is to collectively bring the Personnel bylaw to town meeting this year with any changes that we see that need to be made immediately and then the employee handbook as well and getting it back to that book that was created in 2021 open enrollment process development um we've done a lot of work on this this is our tool for how everyone and all of our employees sign up or decline benefits so we have utilized our Employee Self-Service portal through munus and now it is automated instead of using paper which saves a lot of time there's still a lot more we could be doing uh we have made a PowerPoint presentation with instructions um but we really need maybe informational videos on how to quickly people like convenience so it's how to quickly manage that process and getting them to to Really jump in into it and sign on we also created uh an administrative assistant position and we're work on um evaluating the usage of part-time hours which I will go into more detail a little bit later and overall in the entire department this is more of ongoing but we've already done a lot so I put it under accomplishments but we're working on establishing systems for information and processes a lot of our processes overlap with the treasurer's office especially when it comes to payroll and so we have successfully established where those overlapping tests makes sense to live in which department and also who's responsible for them this helped streamline a lot of questions we were getting from employees on who to go to For What and really the processes itself um when it came to needing to get through those and overall we've enhanced Communications to all departments so I've been working um diligently with some department heads on meeting with them unfortunately you can't meet on one person you can't meet with everybody individually um but I've really been looking at how to get information out to departments that they need to know um so Jim and Ryan have been successful in establishing um department head meetings again which has been helpful um I try to utilize that time to really give out any information that may be relevant to other departments that they need to be aware of and goals for fiscal year 2026 um again you heard earlier that departments are looking for training and development opportunities so this goes beyond just the HR department we do have the ability to assist other departments with funding for these opportunities a lot of um what's been coming up recently is we have a lot of newer younger managers a lot of supervisory training leadership training Management training that has come up a lot um but really we need to get the word out there uh that this is available to all departments so they utilize it more exploring creative options for Recruitment and Retention through policy development we have done a lot with recruitment over the last year uh but more so we need to focus on retention now with our current employees there's a lot of policies in our employee handbook for example that are outdated that could be updated that we've heard from employees um asking for those requests so we'll be looking at those over the next year develop and Implement Employee Engagement programs events and recognition as I mentioned before we have established a lot which employees are happy with but there's still more to do we could still be improving hearing requests from employees about what they're looking for and what they want to see from us as the staff engagement committee and again we're working on that annual recognition event research evaluate benefits offered and mitigate for insurance costs this is the not so nice topic I get to talk about today but as we all know Insurance costs are rising um it's not stopping in the near future it's due to uh weight loss drugs um increased usage of those drugs that's a a big piece of this we're working with Maya who is our insurance provider and our insurance advisory committee to really evaluate ways we can mitigate for that um there's a few options which I'll I'll touch on in a little bit promote Wellness incentives that support mental and physical health um just because somebody doesn't say something that's bothering them doesn't mean nothing is bothering them and we really have to look at what we're doing for our employees and our staff on mental health and physical health um there's a lot that we could be sting out that our Wellness committee offers um through Maya we have an employee assistance program through Maya that we can utilize really need to promote those two employees and let them know that they're there for them hearing it when they're hired um it's just not enough so we want to make sure we're supporting them conduct a classification and compensation study for non-union PHS roughly I think this is done every three years um so we are in the midst of that currently we are in the infancy stages which is gathering all the positions that would be reviewed and Gathering a scope of work comprehensive review of policies and procedures this is what I touched on before phase one is really establishing the Personnel bylaw and the employee handbook back to make sure those are the correct versions and they are posted in the correct places and phase two would be really taking anything HR has seen or any other employee um has recognized as maybe it could be improved as a policy or procedure and evaluating which ones need to be changed which ones can be changed um what makes sense for our organization and establishing an assistant Human Resources Director position before you move on can I ask you a question about the training and development sure how do you decide which ones come out of the HR budget versus the Department's budget so typically what I do is ask the department um if their budget has any funds in it currently um and then we evaluate what um for example we had an Excel training request but is there somebody in house that could run that before we get somebody from the outside um we evaluate those two things first and then if there's any left over um that they can't cover in the department and it's related to their field we typically do cover it so excuse me S follow on that how much there are two line items here education and professional development for 20 grand and tuition reimbursement for 20 grand how much of that have you used or committed so far this year ballpark I mean is it um roughly it's about $6,000 I'm sorry roughly it's about $6,000 okay and so what the tuition was really um created for was to um help employees with college courses we really need to create a policy for that in order to utilize that okay so you've committed about 6,000 of the one of the 20,000 or 6,000 of the 40,000 one of the 20,000 so this 40,000 of some kind of training how much have you committed for those two buckets 6,000 6,000 okay correct okay if I may um Mr Vice chairman and uh members of the the committee and the and the select board so this is really as you heard as you as you saw all the accomplishments and the goals uh that Michelle has undertaken and with a with with a department of of two um this is really something that I had uh I had encouraged in terms of the tuition reimbursement uh to there was um with the Outreach efforts that Michelle was doing there weren't a lot of people knocking per say knocking on the door for the tuition reimbursement um but there will be a more concentrated effort and uh now that there is incentive for people to go to Community College uh and then uh but our our drive would be going to you know pursuing bachelor's degrees fine yep all right thank you before you skip ahead Michelle compon class study so we got funding for that back in where does that stand so it's in the infancy stages right now so I'm working with the Personnel advisory committee to bring the scope of work we received from one vendor back to them um so they can evaluate the positions that we are um researching and then the um scope of work with it so their meeting is next week so no price T you not yet so Ryan you can skip SK the next three slides so this is just Capital um HR department doesn't really have any Capital to discuss um so Department operating budget request highlights we currently have a 19-hour administrative assistant position in our budget which is currently funded at $2,519 And1 what we're asking is that we create an assistant Human Resources Director position to replace that 19-hour position so the Delta that we are asking for is $4,410 with that I just want to go into the need for the assistant director position so last year I had ended the budget presentation with the need to evaluate the hours and scope of work of the administrative assistant to make sure that it fulfills the needs of the department and the organization we are one of a few departments that service all departments we not only have all the employees but we have many vendors retirees and former employees that we need to service we need to ensure and sustain operations at any time any Personnel matter could arise with no warning some matters can be resolved quickly While others can't and hr's responsibility has a lot to do with legal matters it could be safety concerns and we need to spend time speaking with all parties involved we need to be able to respond quickly to a lot of questions that come through the department a lot of the payroll management not on the paying side of the employee but the management in the system of entering the employee into the system adding their deductions to the employee screen job salary maintenance which is how much you're being paid what you're being paid a lot of that is in the HR office overlapping with the treasurer's office these are time-sensitive questions when payroll is on deadlines that it needs to be processed by while any policy we have in the HR department can't predict every scenario a lot of these questions and interpretations can have impacts um and we need to make sure that we can answer them quickly another big factor is the labor market has changed and while we have had a lot of employees staying it's it's been a lot of administrative work and we need to be more strategic where we're posting when we're posting how we're posting these positions so the role of the assistant HR Director has become increasingly critical in light of these demands the town needs an assistant director to provide continuity of operations when the Human Resources Director is involved in critical matters or in their absence creating such a role will also provide for succession planning in a major department that Services every Department in the town of Littleton and so again we have currently funded roughly 25,000 and we're looking for an additional 54,000 so just to be clear Michelle you approved from the 19h hour by a you did not fill it correct and now you're looking to increase it to a fulltime correct so with so with everything I just explained we realized that the 19 hours is not enough and the level of service that an administrative assistant could provide from what's needed in the department in the organization is a higher level of service that's needed it's on a management level I've got a couple questions I since it was going from 19 hours to 40 it also be all the the benefits so how much would that account for how much would that be uh I think what they use in the book was around 22,000 for health insurance okay so it's really not a 54 it's a 70 76,000 and oh yeah and the other thing is it's in the book is it basically an $80,000 person 79,000 ex change but they're only asking for 54 so you're only adding them for seven or eight months no it's 54 because they already replacing the ptime position the 19h hour position they never filled it so that's in the budget from last year so so in the so the $80,000 person is not in this in in the 97,000 from last year yeah includes a 18 hour person that going to f they're adding 54 to that number to make a fulltime $80,000 so they're they're running that difference light this year yes okay so so what is the $440,000 reserve fund wages for so that was created to cover any um wages that sor that was created to cover any wages that if an employee retired and they had vacation on the books for example and the department didn't have that budgeted for the expense line from last year why was it mooved from expenses to wages it wasn't obviously wasn't spent last year what is it being spent on this year yes so so it is moving so I requested that it move um to the finance director and the finance team um when you're covering wages and Tom meeting votes it as wages it should be under a wages line not an expense line so I guess I just I have to I feel obligating to push back a little bit about this since the position wasn't in place this year it's really asking for new ft a new Full FTE and I just I noticed in the previous department on iary we pushed back hard on 35 to 37 and a half you know and so here we you know you know a full FTE I'm just you know we as we've looked at the the then I'm getting to a point I know I haven't had a point yet but I'm getting a point sorry sorry just um work as as as we've looked at the next couple years we've talked about uh you know compounding expenses especially personnel and I'm so I'm justone think comment I think our job has to be to largely push back would be a pretty heavy lift ask for f another ft fair enough um fair enough but one of the things when I came B little over little over a year ago was and uh evaluating uh and and observing different the various departments uh one of the ones that that there was there was concerned over was was HR I mean as you all are very very uh aware of that the the complications and the uh the HR World human the employment world is ever changing and it's getting more complicated uh whether it be through legal means whether it be policy means anything like that and here you had two people really and um one individual that had experience another person who was um a generalist who did not have any experience I mean you're basically drinking out a fire hose and you are probably one of the most um as as Michelle had pointed out deals with every single Department including the school department and um it was uh a it was it was a lot and it was a lot to a point of concern to me legally and for exposure for the town so it was me that said let's hold off on the 19 hour that's great let's re-evaluate it a little longer we have brought in some um an outside professional uh through the Colin Center uh with of an expertise in in the in HR and has confirmed my thoughts exactly to to the level of working with Michelle working with Briana and and just and evolving and making making Progressive changes on how the the the department operates that it absolutely uh requires um another full-time person with experience yeah I guess that's Ty like that every I mean I'd love to say yes to everything but it's just in the in these times it's it's sort of obligated to you know if right we can't afford not to that's I mean because it's but put up to a point of of of concern and I wouldn't and I would AC and I would I completely understand where you're coming from 100% but yes we did and I and I did give Sam we did give Sam the opportunity if you could have one or the other and he absolutely without absolutely selected that well um we HR doesn't have that luxury okay I I I can tell you ran from thank you sir being in charge of HR prior to Michelle count with they they need help with that they really do the the two people can't handle the level of service that we need for the employees you and if something gets pushed through the cracks and missed it's it costs money okay okay I'm I'm I'm happy to listen to both of you just that my my starting point for any new FTE has always got to be no Absol now tell me why absolutely that's respectful it's it's ABS absolutely know it's just that's what I have you know how that's how I look at things it's it's a no a front I know talk me into it the Ary this is an easy talk me that you're telling me you want another employee let's let's note the date and time okay uh um so we talked about the um sorry Ryan if you just go back on we talked about the Personnel Reserve fund moving and the last line item is we have looked at all our expense line items the only one changing is advertising it has decreased by $1,000 we're more cognizant of where we're posting what we're posting and where we really need to get those specialized um positions and really on this slide um meeting with the Town Administrator and the finance team um there has been no recommended changes from what was presented and last but not least um operating needs projecting out 5 years so we currently again we're looking at systems we're looking at everything we service other employees on other departments one of our biggest Services is applicants um on boarding how we conduct that process our current software does have this ability um it would be an additional cost I have not even touched on evaluating it yet but it does need to be reviewed and evaluated it could streamline a lot of processes that affect everyone increasing Security office and space we deal with a lot of confidential information whether it's speaking with someone in person and they're telling us about medical issues they're having they want to retire um anything they do any paper that's left out on your desk we really need to be mindful of how we utilize our space and how we're locking things up or even turning our computers off digitizing records um a lot of our records are on paper if not all of them it approves time and efficiency um when producing requests from employees former employees instead of sifting through a 5 in thick personnel file um so we're looking at doing that and developing strategies to mitigate for insurance increases I feel this will never go away unfortunately I touched on this earlier um we floated the idea of an opale program before um there's different ideas that we really need to work with the insurance advisory committee and the employees to help mitigate for these costs over the last three years we've seen a significant increase in utilization in our plans um how we can mitigate for those claims that they're reviewing and those costs so Michelle just to be clear in this you're not envisioning over the next five years you're going to want to bring back that human resources assist admin assistant I do not Envision that right now so you envision that in three years you're still have an Department of three correct or five years with us um I did have one question in the um not so much in the budget but in the narrative there's um it says there's 800 800ish employees and there's uh basically 160 new hires a year between the different that's an incredible turnover if you depending on how you look at it so um how do we break that out is that seasonal hires that we're rehiring in that's anything between town schools seasonal um that's everybody so the 820 includes seasonal I I it would be good to have it broke out between full parttime seasonal so we I mean right now it looks like we have a turnover of 30% so as of today we have 356 full-time benefit eligible employees um I'm Excuse me 450 we have 272 part-time non benefits eligible employees that includes everyone in the senior tax workof program and Veterans tax program um they still have to do the onboarding packet get entered into the system because it's all run through payroll that includes the senior workof correct all that so you y and then you have 83 temporary and seasonal employees as well okay so a lot of those hires are I I mean 158 hires seems like a lot in a in a given year so we must be every year we're considering hiring the senior workers again you could so I'm I'm just trying to figure out that's a really large number to be hiring every year what I don't just the but if you if you're hiring 100 like in FY 24 it says we had 158 new hires out of 823 employees that's a huge percentage right the more interesting number might be the number of full-time benefit eligible people who turned over right yeah I'm not sure if that's an easy number but I think that's the more interesting number it yeah you want to get the number that excludes the senior workers and things like that that are more trangent workers for lack of a better term but yeah so all I can say is that the school department does have a huge factor in a lot of our operations um it's probably it's just like the budget it's 2third of our operation um and what happens is they're hiring week to week to week and it's not because people are necessarily leaving it's because they're filling or creating new positions to cover their staff if someone's sick they need to cover that class um they need to make sure they have Subs long-term Subs short-term Subs so there's a lot of hiring that goes on for the school department okay it it would just be good to figure out you know this makes it looks like we have really poor retention thanks no I hence the employee recognition yeah let's say hiring is fluid say okay thank you any else Michelle thank you everyone uh next we have uh lctv uh M Cory and that's on page 307 with in your uh budget 307 evening last year of the calendar year some major accomplishments uh we have a new podcast Studio that was uh completed or set I guess you could say in our studio uh that was uh built and designed by a eagle scout um person um Hest Glorioso and so he's the one who came up with the idea and pitched the idea to us and he got a lot of U businesses in town to donate Lumber and things like that for the actual construction we paid for the equipment part it but um anyway that's up and running she needed a new par studio for Jim to run his they I'm Ed mcmah she's Friday afternoon late they did their first episode and U it has 185 views so far so right that's great since Friday um we completed our archiving project which was the digitization of uh CDs and DVDs and old VHS tapes and anything that we had lying around the studio that was uh we felt um necessary to Archive and to for historical purposes um we also uh increased our VOD government meetings from 11 regular boards and committees uh per month and now we have 24 monthly meetings that we have our hands involved in um whether we edit and trim and post production work or we actually like we do tonight have the cameras and the crew that that man them live um we hired a 19-hour production coordinator for box PE um covering a lot of the boxboro needs over there and that was through the uh IMA built it into the cost of the IMA with them and then um we provided technical assistance I was trying to figure out if if we've done something with every single department and I think we have whether we're helping them promote an event or cover an event or take pictures or assisting with uh setting up projectors and TVs and things you know a mark on the archiving is there any talk about going back and I I assume you had old archived meetings is there any effort to uh associate those with the meeting on the website so that you can go back rather than just searching YouTube for something yeah no I don't think there's an there's talk about that unless we get a senior ta right off person person to to be able to link those two things up but you probably do notice that going forward Nancy does link the uh the video portion of the meeting to the the minutes online so those two are emerged we also um we started at least with the select board meetings we index them so if you go to YouTube and you want to find a specific topic you you look over the side and it has everything out um you know with an index like a timestamp so you can go click on that and it'll take you right to that part of the meeting have to you know skim through the meeting which is kind cool uh it it does take time though so that's why we only do the select board meetings right now um for the fiscal year 20 uh 26 budget updates um we'd like to our goals at Department goals we we want to launch the lctv Spotify Channel which we actually did um we launched it last week so we've already met Backle but uh if you go to spot Spotify and you type in Littleton Community television you'll see our Channel come up there and you'll see all the different programs that we've uploaded so far there's only five of them but we hope as more people utilize the podcast we'll get more up there um complete and the installation and training for the new Senior Center remote Studio we have equipment and a a studio similar to what we have here going over in the new Senior Center um and then the third goal I guess would be to explore alternative means of funding which I can get to in a minute when we talk about uh our fiveyear plan but um any questions so far so for the fiscal year 2026 budget update um no Capital request I did um put that we were looking to replace the lctv T TV van and with possibly a uh an excess Littleton Police apartment um vehicle something like a Bronco or whatever they use the SUV type we don't need a full production band like we have now the marshmallow which we call it up there um because we initially got that because we thought we might build a studio in the back of it but due to security reasons and the temperatures in um New England we decided not to build a studio into it so it's basically just used to transport equipment and um so we felt maybe with a if the police department were getting rid of one of their Vans they might want to donate it down to us we don't put a lot of mileage on it which basically go to the school the schools and back to our studio um there were no um revised requests or Capital uh ta revised capital budget requests and then the next one is the projected fiveyear Capital plan uh we we had a pretty comprehensive one about three years ago we'd really Trimm that down um the only thing that we could possibly see doing would be to replace our iMac editing machines at about three of them cost about 24,000 to do that mostly because after a certain while operating systems don't upgrade anymore you can't get the latest without getting a new computer and that's probably what we'll run into within the next three years or so but and then this is a typo but replace lctv with excess LPD inventory that should be the van not lctv for clarification of do that does that effectively the police budget and that they're not getting a trade in it could yeah it could um let's see fiscal year 2026 budget update um the operating expenses minus the wages remain the same uh as as ify 25 the wages will decrease with the retirement of our video production supervisor that would be Kirby dolac retiring at the end of the year June 30th is his last day so our plan is to uh promote from within but we won't replace the um 19-hour position so there's a savings there from both where the promotion lands on the grid and with the uh replacing the the 19h hour position and then um right so the the new one so I think what the the retirement came out so after so we yeah so what this is is something that's been um just tweaked recently so I think Herby announced after the U two weeks ago is when we found that um which is still plenty of time to prepare which was nice too we going to miss him though um and then for the fiscal year 2026 let's see lctb uh there was no um ta revised operating budget adjustments so those oh I actually yeah with Kirby's I'm sorry I just meant from might want to just look at the screen Mark just ah well there you go thank you I didn't know that was updated so that's the savings the the 49,000 is the savings of Kirby's uh the difference in his wage Lane and step and also the part-time person um our five-year operating needs um again just to say that cable revenues uh in boxboro IMA revenues are anticipated to not provide sufficient funding to cover all the lctv expenses at the current levels so hence the one of the goals this year um is to look at alternative means of funding or resources to to um continue to operate at the con level um we um we're a little different in that we're a town Department you know we can't really look at other towns um what they do to fundraise because they're nonprofit organizations so I guess we'd have to do something similar if we were going to fund Race by starting a nonprofit arm of lctv like the friends of the Library do or the friends of COA do um but anyway we're we're looking at different options and and different scenarios for that um by my estimates it seems like will be okay to be fully funded this year and possibly next year but the year after that is probably when we'll run out of uh money in our Kitty our piggy bank which we've been drawing from for the past few years um generally uh well I have been for since 2020 um letting the finance committee and the select board know that you know at the time I was hoping that the town would take on a portion of of that expense whether it be at the time I had said just the benefits portion if the town picked that up we should be able to operate us pretty much um self-funding um for 10 years but um since 2020 each budget cycle it's been it's told to me it's been a rough year rough year we're going have to wait we're have to wait we have to wait um and then we've also had turnover in ad administrations that you know so not every uh all that information was not passed down from generation to generation of Administrators um but we're working on um you know coming up with a plan and a solution um whether it be through alternative funding means methods or uh as I was hoping that perhaps the town would take over a portion of our budget now what I did find out over the summer and I don't think anybody knew this um or if they did it wasn't made aware to me anyway you can't just pay for the benefits portion of this of our budget it has to be wages and benefits you can't separate them out if the town was going to be subsidize they'd have to subsidize both wages and benefits not one of the other um apparently this is the law so um that was kind of news to me um I think it was news to our financial people too at the time um but anyway that's that's the way it is and uh there any questions in the out years you know the 28 29 time frame that you looked at relocating um to someplace else um and the purpose of that would be to what would be the purpose of that either that or you can pay for the whole Shad Street Building when Town Hall moves up oh I see um well there rapidly emptying the building yeah so honestly we we've looked at some things um there's talk about there was talk about us moving into the Tuttle house at one time um but really there hasn't been a lot of movement in that end of things you know that's kind of far down the road that we haven't really the cliff is coming closer so I think you need to at least begin to start thinking about someplace for you to be yeah well if we wanted to downsize what I would propose would be that if they did build a new town hall on the site at 550 King Street that they would build a studio into it because it makes more sense for us to be part of the community of town hall we're more in the pulse of things um you know being in the Tuttle house is a little isolated I know it's still on the same campus so to speak but you don't get the same Vibe as you do when you're in the building with with the fellow staff people so and if we're if we downsized at that time um that would be okay with us um we don't really need all the space that comes with the gym that we inherited but we're happy to have it but sure we could get by with a small fopr just something that should be on your radar screen that's all it's on the radar screen I just haven't got to point where people have discussed all those get how of the money that you get from kcast and Verizon has to be spent on equipment is that true no no no it's just we can spend it on however we want okay so a point of clarification on the benefits if we were to pay Kirby salary for example we could we pay his benefits but since we're not paying Kirby's salary we can't pay Kirby's benefits it's not in a per Department it's on a for individual basis correct yes you could pay for just one person's salary and benefits a SK account y absolutely so we can pick who we like in the department the best yes that's that's how it would be seen who get the best swag that's the important thing that's how it would be viewed exactly we can pick up Kirby salary once he leaves yeah next year we'll pick them up next year right that's a good plan always thinking I just want say I like that you you continue to expand the number of of uh boards and committees that you cover it's always great to see that uh do you have like the next couples that are on your list not withstanding all the constraints that that might be on and at like Light and Water that's one of the few holdouts I think and I don't say hold out meaning they they've not they refused to do it just one that we haven't got around to making those arrangements yet um but you'll notice a lot of new newbies up there the sustainability committee and the clean Lakes committee and um you know we did the housing uh what was it the Housing Authority the other day um thanks to uh Matthew nor it's great work it's good to see yeah it's good I think it's good people can uh to watch these things you know I'm always surprised at the number of views that these shows get you know you wouldn't think people would be interested in the bicycle pedestrian committee but they are so it's good to have it out there Y and the funds coming in from concast and Verizon So you you're showing a $10,000 decrease in each and then that's down from your 24 actuals what's the run rate so fir in 25 with those are we ahead of it's so hard to to figure out how they send the money because um they don't break it down for me in real detail I just get a check and one quarter it'll be up5 $600 the next quarter it'll be down $800 and then it'll go up and it'll go down you know it depends almost if there's an event like the Olympics and people you know sign up for again um so it's really it's up and down but if you were to graph it out you'd see that even though it jumps up and down it has been a decline and then mostly it hasn't been a sharp decline because the cable companies keep raising people's rates so even though our subscriber numbers are way down um the number of people actually get cable anymore the um we haven't seen a significant drop because of the you know raising of rates you know I will say that most of our expenses come in unfortunately or fortunately however you look at it in wages and benefits you know the benefits really went up a lot last few years number of years and it hurt us a lot so okay there was a discuss there was thought that with all the streaming services or anything like that that are that so many companies are are are embracing and Verizon and whatnot maybe that is that would be potential another funding source so having um worked with uh the commissioner of telecommunications and cable uh my last position I called her and not a ciller of a thought of that whatsoever because they're unregulated streaming services they have no no authority of them so they can so that's not any type of of an additional funding source moving forward is there any talk of using like the senior workof um volunteer workers or whatever we want to call them to help cover meetings or other not to not to cover meetings um but they they have we have utilized senior work off um people in our studio um we had a woman who was editing for a lot of number of years she edited most of our shows so um but not for coverage of meetings the coverage of meetings is is um kind of minimal as far as expense goes just to you know it's it's not that uh expensive of of a line item really okay thank you thanks Mar okay um next we have the assessor's office and that's on page 123 evening Kathy Miller Chief assessor so to go over some of the accomplishments from last year the main one was training and education of the assistant assessor in the field list of position um Hannah is knew she was the field Lister she is the current assistant assessor and she took that position as of May and so we're trying to get her on board get her all the training she needs to get her designation and then Kim as Diane mentioned earlier came from the clerk's office and she is currently our field Lister and we're trying to get her up and running we hired a summer intern to meet our inspection quarter uh fiscal year 26 is our certification year and part of the certification is every property in town has to be inspected and to meet that we hired a college intern who came in and got us up to our quota so we have met that so every house every house in commercial industrial property in Wilton has been inspected at least once in the past 10 years the only thing we're a little bit behind on is exempt properties and that's like the churches and the schools in the town and we're going to try to hit those this spring um we initiated the purchase of nmap to assist in heart lless properties this is helping us for properties that are private ways have no trespassing and vacant properties so that we can see if there's any out buildings in them uh we also removed and reclassified all land factors land factors for those who don't know is some of our land we had factors on them ranging from 5 to 10% if they were near railroad um if they had traffic they were private way and one of the do directives is to try to get rid of those factors the department goals um mainly is the successful and timely 2026 certification work with Patriot on commercial land values standardized factors on building values so we removed all the land values last year now we have to look at the building values some of the excuse me what is the issue with Patriot no issue with Patriot um previously we would put factors on land in buildings um just for like for buildings we' put if they were oversized um the layout was funky um new construction and we would put anywhere between 5 and 10% on that and we did the same with land do every year has directives and one of them was that they don't like seeing Too Many Factors they should be on properties that really need them but the rest of them should be done through the market analysis you should be looking at all the roads I mean all the dead end roads all the private ways and using the market data to to adjust those values not by putting random five and 10% factors that you can't really monitor I think Patriot is could you describe what Patriot is Patriot is our canva system and that's what we use to enter it's not theany it's not it's not the company okay sorry yeah my my mistake apologize no C is the system that's where we enter every every house in town has its own property record card Patriot is the software where we enter the sketch we enter all the information um so we want to finish our Municipal Land review one of the things that we did last year is we looked at all the town owned land and we started combining some of them uh we combined we did um the Conservation Commission last year and now we're looking at the rest of them and the reason this has benefit is because a lot of times we're looking for builds for Park and wreck we might be looking for where we put affordable housing but right now a lot of the land is broken up into small sections as we purchase them they might be 0 2 point4 but by combining them you can kind of look at them easier find properties that we might be able to do something with um we're completing a process manual for all procedures performed by the assessing Department we just started that last year but it's not finished and that ranges from every procedure from how to list a house to how to do an abatement motor vehicle abatements how to do um a Butters list it's every procedure because we've had such a turnover in the past couple years and then continue education for the assistant assessor in the F listing position so quick question on the municipal land as we're reviewing them are we tagging them better like if I go to the gis system um I can see what land is controlled by the Conservation Commission but I can't see the land controlled by like um the select board for example or you know the school it's hard to find land the by Department let's say are we tagging them better or so I have a master list and we haven't done what you just suggested but I can put that out there it'd be easy enough to do a layer based on that okay thank you I have no capital budget requests so as far as the budget update uh step increases for the staff we were level funded for expenses and this is because we went to fall toown meeting and received $225,000 towards certification services so in in the budget it actually shows the assistant wages going down down is that just because we hired someone at a lower step yes exactly so the only thing that I have as far as looking projecting for the next five years is upgrading patrion to the current revision we are on the lowest um version of patriot that they have they are supporting it uh they keep saying that in the next couple years they're going to stop supporting it although they've said that for several years now uh the benefit of upgrading it is it can tie into view permit right now we're manually entering all our permits um when you upgrade there'll be there's an instant connection with the current version so we wouldn't be having to enter building permits and all the previous years are static so they would be right they'd be current I could go look at it right now if I need to look at a property record card from 2022 I have to log out log in to an old static database this one they would be all concurrent I can go into any year I need to go what cost per upgrade I don't even have a ballpark because I've been hoping to put this off but that is one of the things this is a certification year so I knew I didn't want to do it for 2026 but I was going to start investigating that cost this year yeah because once you're at the tail end of support it's yeah it's all yeah and this this this would be a one-time upgrade cost mainly not a that's correct so so it is more of a capital than an operational in that respect all Park I said a $50,000 upgrade or $200,000 upgrade um I've we've had the same operating one for the past 11 years I've been here and I honestly don't even have a ballpark okay good so it's a recertification so you just explain to everybody what that what that means because that's going to be a lot more time and effort for your yeah so every five years there's a certification year for the assessor's office for our assessments and it's more strict um do is coming out to visit Littleton I believe February it's the 11th so she'll start by coming out and she'll do a quality study where she'll ask me for baits she'll ask me for some property record cards and then she'll take those property record cards drive out to the field make sure that we're getting all the information that we should be going when we're out in the field um she'll look for things like she'll look at our um income and expenses forms so we have to send those out every year to all the businesses so that we get um what we're getting for rents for all our businesses to use that for the income approach of value so she'll look to make sure that we're mailing those out that we're getting a good amount back um she just looks at all our processes our chapter lands she'll go through our chapter land folders make sure that every property that's in chapter land has a lean that's been filed at the registry of deeds so it's it's just a process so every year they don't do that but every five years they come in and a lot of the reporting is is much more it's done by quartiles and residuals and looking at land and she'll do the sales and she'll put everything in a in a macro and and she'll tell me what she thinks and that's where I get all my directives for the next five years is based on this quality study she'll say things like like one of the things from last year was my condos every single condo development should have had um an index so that they can sort by the condo indexes she wanted our neighborhoods updated so previously our neighbors our neighborhoods were 1 through 10 but they the neighborhoods didn't really represent anything so now we have like neighborhood one is Waterfront neighborhood two is water view neighborhood three is cluster development and Ne before was throughways and so now all my neighborhoods have some so when I'm analyzing my sales you can kind of see how high traffic on Great Road or King Street or um dead end roads or the different factors of land and neighborhoods affect sales so she'll be looking at all of that so it's just much more strict I don't have to do all of the every year that I go for regular certification um to get my values certified it's a lot less thank you uh there collectors on what y counting oh yes I'll go you go and then I'll sign 127 okay Robin Healey treasur collector um major accomplishments for this calendar year is we maintained our AAA Bond rating um thanks to the strong fiscal policies that we have that and the contributions to stabilization accounts that we um have I think that really helped with that um we worked with the finance team to set the tax rate um we earned 1.5 um in investment income which is most interest Treasures interest um the budgeted amount in that for 24 and 25 is 250,000 so that's a good generator of free cash um and if you compare that to the investment income we had in FY 23 was just over 774 th000 so we definitely had a good year of we we are active in transferring money to accounts that earn higher interest we transfer three times a week and we're always trying to seek out higher rates through all the banks that we're using um we collected 145,000 just over in tax lean revenue and removed seven properties from tax title this year I can say in appy 25 we're just about at eight we got two payments left and we'll have eight in that tile this year our goals for this year is to continue cross training for all our staff we're always trying to make sure everybody knows what everybody else is doing um to continue process Improvement and maximize accuracy and efficiency um we are already starting this year in um train looking into Tyler cash earing to see what we need to train um so we have a demo coming up next month we went and saw it North Reading last month and we're moving along on that so R can you explain what that is so it's a it's more of instead of it's a locked box so everything will be more computerized and money's locked as opposed to in a shoe box and locked in the safe it's always locked in the safe but it it will just more it'll automatically hit the account it generates a receipt you've seen it right when you guys first did it Steve's not a fan it's okay we're gonna look at it and see um Alicia purchased it yeah Alicia purchased it and yeah so we're looking to try to implement and get it started um and then Implement clear gov to all departments this next fiscal year so we opened it up to a couple people to put their narratives in to see how they did with it um this next budget cycle that we do it'll be more interactive for all the department heads to go in put their narratives in and then Wilson will control the the GL piece of it and the numbers so it'll just be for them to update and review their budgets more live so um our only increase this year is in wages um expenses stayed the same this is collector same thing no increase in expenses wages increased um tax title we keep the same that's all I use for um legal fees to collect tax title that is it does anybody have any questions off the thank you you fix this good evening Michelle Reynolds t I don't know what page because I didn't know it was supposed to reference the page count is8 118 and we're going to start with accomplishments for calendar year um we had some turnover I was for a little while Department of one and we had um someone come in as a financial analyst and he decided to depart for Texas um so it took a few months to hire an assistant Town accountant that happened in January of 24 and then our financial analyst in June of 24 um I will have to say we're very pleased we're getting a lot of help so I can focus on the higher level tasks and um the finan analyst is a lot of her focus is um the three projects we have going on the senior center 36 King Street and the shakeline feasibility so we gather the invoice packets um from the vendors um look at the change orders there's a lot of going back and forth and it's really coming to ahead now with you know buying FF ande um for these s and keeping track of all the change orders and make sure we're communicating all this information um to Ryan and also the OPM make sure we're all in sync together and making sure we're not missing any items um so that's like a really right now is actually a very busy time we'll be least when these come to completion um the other Focus for the financial analyst is tracking of gifts and grants grants has just taken this a higher level at this point and um we've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes tracking making sure people are in compliance really getting into the nitty-gritty of looking at uh the contract details and kind of parsing this out um by department so we know who's in charge of each Grant um we completed an update to the financial software in May so that was a minor update but it takes not just the accounting team but Treasures team as well um and that's about it other than the uh annual um reporting to the state between the tax rate schedule a and the balance sheet goals for 26 um additional for our own Department as well as the other users of the financial software every Department um uses the software in some form or another um we're primarily focused on budget expenses accounts payable purchase orders uh things of that nature um and we'd like to roll out additional training especially for new users uh new users in different departments as well as leveraging um leveraging the system for ourselves as I mentioned enhanced gift and Grant tracking and Reconciliation make sure people aren't overspending grants and also um more enhanced tracking of you know who's responsible for their submissions on grants to ensure we're getting you know reimbursed for that money in a timely manner on on the grants I know some of the grants like an overhead that you can charge back or we trying to figure out what our overhead rate is and leveraging that at all haven't seen any of that other than in green communities Grant where I know Diane Diane Dickerson's time was accounted for through the grant but I really haven't seen it and a lot of the other ones are direct just for equipment things like that I haven't seen any um and then continue to uh leverage the software for better optimization of resources that's meaning evaluating with the treasurers team um what's available in the modules of the software and um you know learning about new features in the software as they come along you know every couple of months you hey there's there's a new feature in there that we didn't know about and we sometimes learn it by accident but you know with a now a full staff we can kind of FOC focus on those things and go out to webinars through um the software's website and actually get some Advanced Training and deploy that to people and make their lives easier um have no Capital requests and no no capital fiveyear capital plan so um just budget request highlights comparing year-over year um as I really got into looking at um our expense budget from the past two years and looking to this one um and looking at actuals I think with a fi you know previously we had a finance director within our department and since we took that out we could break bring down the conferences dues travel each of those um a a small increase in supplies some reporting firms that we have to order every year and with office supplies with now on staff of three we need a little bit Norm but not much um decreased need for outside Consulting as I'm getting more experienced in the town accountant role and been going to classes myself that helps to ease the pressure for Consulting um consultant in particular particular is you know their rate goes up every year and it's up to about $300 an hour so you pay for the technical expertise but we also take that from them and learn and keep that within the department um wages was just a step increases for the Department um do we have the the change I don't think the change is listed on here I don't think there were anything I think the total expenses changed slightly okay $1,000 I think um accounting services is the biggest line in the expenses and that uh covers the cleargov budgeting software which is used by accy treasury director um Pace education training which is um training through our financial software folks and that um we haven't really deployed it outside of accounting Treasury and payroll and now we're at a good point where um we're going to have some coverage in the school department and we can actually deploy it to them and say okay take a half a day and um here's all the things you're going to need to have the basics on and so it's a virtual training with a live person you attend for two to three hours and get some training on your own then you come back to us with additional questions unique to how we operate um so there's annual cost for that and then just the outside Consultants like I said we're trying to pinch back on what we might use for Consultants we do need them as expertise outside when we don't have the answers Michelle who's our auditor firm now who's our audit firm roselli and I had asked Tony for an update in any pricing change for next year and he said no you know potentially because we had a single federal audit in future years you know in the in the fiveyear operating means that could be you know $5,000 or so increase in audit depending on the level of grants that are funded through the federal government but we don't know that pricing yet until we we start to accumulate more grants um and that's just you know typical software increases for Clear go Pace education that's all I have is roselli under contract right um is under contract yeah so there but we've you know part of the issue is there's been so much consolidation for auditing firms now um so now they're they brazili Clark are the of the few local companies that haven't been bought up by a larger National firm so we like we like that you can pick up the phone and and talk to their team and we've had a good report with them and um so yeah I think we need to well gonna be need to be renewing contract but the other firm we had milans was gobbled up by Markham who was now owned by ciz so the the amount of firms is dwindling and I've I've seen a lot of chatter About You Know M municipalities having issues with getting their audits done it can take an extra six months to get their audit done you can't get your financi which could impact your bond rating and and also to the people who are actually entering us there a dir of accountants so we see you know they're saying that's a continuing issue as well yeah you don't want to lose your account you have to pay a consulting firm big bucks to have that available and they're even stretched they stretched yeah so I so since you guys ran through this so quick I actually had a question for the on The Collector part um one the postage number seems outrageously low it says $400 for postage which seems very low for all of the bills that I get in the mail um and I don't know what other services is I know it's a catchall for everything but it's a very big number and it just says other services $334,000 colle um so so Elli and Ryan does the T provides the um billing and also it's the postage is part of that tax billing fees on their services so that's what the other services okay so it's because we're Outsourcing it it's fromst okay given the number of bills I I get I assumed something not all $400 being spent on postage to sent bills yes okay thank seems that way set y thank you Services page 239 hey John rosi veterans agent uh mostly the major confes are the normal start ofal day parade also equating an inventory of uh um yeah the restaurant the cemetery all the V at Cemetery I've done that keep track of all the ones that come in to up you know make sure the gray markers are are in good shape or or N Miss not missing got quite a few which got try to order sometime or other uh also the Veterans Day activities uh meaning the service at the common or something like that uh my department goals are to approve communication with the veterans in town and also try to get the additional names that were missed on the um rools uh at the common um try to get those in place somehow or other B hopefully get a grant or something like that um also to become a Purple Heart Community I think that's uh something that we we should do to recognize our injured soldiers so operating budget meetings and conferences increased by $50 since that's only I don't know how many we're going to have this coming year but I know this year it's been crazy um P postage that's increase of $240 I want to do at least once a year do a mo mass mailing to all my veterans in to find out you know see if there's any changes or whatever uh to find other ones too the ones I don't know about um travel time travel line is that's due to conferences and stuff like that um increasing requested expenses uh only $39 good the wages are are there increase excuse me uh guys operating budget adjustments meetings conferences increased by we did that we sign increase Tri line increase I think this is reflecting increases we talked about John to add make sure you had enough to do right right yeah yeah I think we're all set on that no prise just just as an add-on for everybody to um other things that that John are also related to this we also have within the budget the $10,000 for the VFW rental we've been doing that on a regular basis U John's activ down at the VFW and you know we were just at another event down there John and uh for the Christmas event very you know yeah a great thing and so shap yeah you do a good job down there and then um the other component is Veterans Benefits um and we are actually uh it's going down a bit um to reflect what our actual expenses are if you can see um FY 24 um it was around 106,000 so um we're bringing that number down basically to reflect where um where our activity levels have been uh keep in mind for veterans benefits um they're reur reimbursed at 75% uh so when John meets with a veteran lines lines all that up and you know we pay for that on the front end but then we get back 75% on the cherry sheet and reimbursement the following year it just comes back to the general fund inter yes so the 120,000 represents our 25% number that we're paying no it's the it's it's the full it's the full amount full ball yeah 75% from that usually it's a year after the actual expenses went out usually is but when you get them reburst they do it on a quarterly basis the the 175 budget last year was kind of just an outlier it's what the with the 120 yeah well you get September this like from last year's September quarter really stuff that we put out so that type of thing behind spend 120 but we're expecting get 95 back correct correct next year next year right the F there's a line item somewhere the 95 yeah it's a state a state right any else John okay thank you thank youn you're welcome thank you he so um next up this is we don't have any page numbers because this is a little bit all over the place but this is the as Steve had hinted at we were at the uh section where we're at um miscellaneous departments and and um and more more miscellaneous committees and Boards so um first piece is the disability commission staying the same $1,200 um you know so this is something new that we introduced in fy21 so um keeping that the same uh Memorial Day uh this is uh keeping this the same at $1,250 no changes there historical commission budget uh keeping this the same at 4,480 um you want to talk a little bit about the 250th anniversary or we have the Patriots Day if you remember that's coming up and uh Patriot beverage is made a donation so between um them making the donation we uh are funding I think it was a $10,000 request for them to run their activities who's driving that bus what's that who's driving that bus it's only two months away it's the historical commission L Stein yeah and so and this and the 40 what the nearly 5,000 is for other activities like you know parade special events reenactments and you know that kind of that kind of thing so and that changes every year um in terms of we up their budget for that last year few hundred bucks to 4,000 I need 4,000 again this is what you so this is what this is what they're saying it's one thing that you know this is one of the challenges we have like it's one thing to say to a department and say okay with your spending Trends but if it's a border committee you different different conversation so uh something we can follow up with um I can follow up with Lindon if you'd like but um you this is what they're what they're saying I think part of the money was for 12 Robinson Road um for the um the preservation restriction yeah that's that's part of what they were spending on sh last year well the preservation restrictions um um it's going to continue so for them to maintain it uh and I think they ins Services consulting services for it I think that might be part of what their budget was I think that might okay but I can I can follow up on that um cultural Council uh $5,600 keeping that that the same um you know 24 were right there they you know they kind of fit their programs into what what they have in terms of their resources um Shad Tre commission um is uh requesting $5,000 I wanted to highlight this to note for the select board and the finance committee that uh sh Tre commission is working with Town Council to potentially propose a warrant article for the May 6th annual town meeting um Karen I don't know if there any updates on that but it look I know that they were working toward that we put them together and so um they talked about maybe doing it last fall but W ready and I think they're still on target to do bring something forward for the annual okay um so just let you know I don't think there'll be a cost implication for the change or uh the article of Bring It Forward but still give your heads up you might be saying something on that then uh pmbc uh So based on actual spending of what uh pmbc has been spending we had uh an FY 25 it was $5,000 budgeted and So based on past experience um we're bringing that down to $650 so that is something that we're triing and I I do want to note um while not in here as well we did have uh um did have a meeting with the clean likes committee um they've been they put forward a request and um I think our our what is in here is a new line item for clean Lakes based on how active they've been and I think we we're putting in it's a 10 it's a $10,000 line item for them um in this year as a new request from clean Lakes so um just to make you aware that has worked into your numbers already they they yeah it's in the it's it's included in the budget right now yeah so I should have called that out here but because it was been new um that's why it is not here but should have should have been highlighted and that's why I wanted to call out now we know what they're going to spend the $10,000 on you recall what they what things say yeah they they're they're part of what they're transitioning from is is um uh there's a lot of capital requests that they're putting in on that that lwd is help assisting them with so I think there's I think it's something that they're uh beginning to transition a little bit and trying to figure out what those needs are so this is sort of a starting point we see how it goes with them but um as I said it's a little different with you know a board committee asking for money to be included versus a Department Brian is that going to include um for example their permitting costs uh if good yeah it's more operating you know more of an operating thing as opposed to Capital so they're looking for um permitting for um pulling out some of the invasives that requires a certain amount of sampling so for example I think they have to pull 11 samples from Long Lake in order to submit the pre- survey to be granted a pre- meeting so that they can have a pre- discussion on there uh on the possibility of being potentially granted a permit to do the project um so there's I think my guess is that it includes uh some of those expenses the permits themselves requests you know incur some costs but I would guess uh at least um some of this is sampling anything else you want you'd want to highlight J on clean legs just okay all right anything else on on miscellane our miscellaneous departments and oh sorry Bo and committees okay a sustainability sustainability is in there as well right that hasn't changed I should added that too so I will make a to add both to thank you yes we do not forget about them so and they well they have a grant for the sustainability manager whatever but that's not covered that's covered by the grant not the budg that's correct okay it's a [Music] thing um so for this um this last section I may be looking over at Robin on some of Michelle but this is our our insurance and transfers and um so for both property as well as employee benefits so so let's start off with um property and liability uh we are not proposing any changes in this it's primarily because an FY 24 our rate came in um lower than what we had budgeted so we do anticipate U an increase uh in FY 25 from our our U property and liability insur Maya but we think we can absorb it based upon what the projection is and and where we are right now so uh this was again based primarily because um the prior actually I shouldn't well should be fiscal year 2025 my apologies came in lower than expected so we think we can absorb that so that remains unchanged at 583 th000 so um want to move over talk a little bit about transfers this is uh all the transfers to other departments or funds um such as capital stabilization or debt exclusion uh stabilization fund this is part partially is part of the um our fin Financial policies that um we have requirements to meet minimums on so um so updates since we put the budget together we're transferring $100,000 the general stabilization fund increasing the ending balance to approximately 4.4 million um we are for the C as it relates to the capital stabilization fund we are transferring in about 1.9 million from free cash and revising our transfer out amount to 1.3 million um when we get to the capital plan we'll see that 1.3 million is intended to um cover the fire one of the fire truck Replacements uh and um basically with that as a net increase our Capital uh stabilization fund balance um should increase to about $5.5 million and um one of the things that and I'm to let Steve speak to this is we've got a few other things that are coming on down down the road especially with fire uh two vehicles over two years and so thinking at at this juncture is that we'll be pulling from the capital stabilization fund to um fund those uh that that that's what we're at least in our mind looking to fund fun that so Steve any to add to that but no it's one of the things that I'm looking for so far our Saturday Capital discussion we'll detail out Capital plan and how we're GNA do everything that's on the capital plan that's my goal to that side of it okay um then we get to the school building stabilization fund uh this has been a uh topic we' spent a lot of time with you know Steve in particular has done a lot of work trying to figure out ways in which we could uh begin to set more aside um with the school build building stabilization fund specifically and with keeping in mind that with the Shaker Lane School coming on to be able to um to address the fact that um this will be a Debt Service exclusion and there'll be expenses associated uh with that so we're trying to find ways to reduce the uh cost of the average um average taxpayer uh and homeor so uh items we're looking to do for this in this cycle that we're committing to is uh a one million doll Baseline transfer from free cash which is part of the initial program that Steve's uh proposed based upon a very favorable um free cash um cert we're looking at a free cash certification which is 11.5 million at least it's preliminary I don't think we've heard back in do yet uh in terms of affirming that but we think conservatively that's probably what we'll be at 11.5 million we're proposing another 600,000 um transfer from free cash um we've had a recent conversation um Jim participated Fred Steve with schools and um Steve do you want to talk a little bit about what we're planning on that I mean basically what what yeah do you so like R said uh we met with school department last week last week and one of the things that we've been talking to the schools about in the policy meeting meetings that we had is the level of school choice money they don't really have a policies to spend that money and we had agreed in those policy discussions that their balance should be about 10% the goal balance should be about 10% of the budget which should be around 2.6 million they currently have 3.6 million in the accounts so one of the things that that we went to talk to them about is how they could contribute to the shake aain project and the thing that that Jim came up with um was paying for Capital so they agreed that over their Capital plan that they would pay for their Capital items except for the roots and the boilers and things like that the big things they would pay for those items out of their school choice funds or however they can fund them and we would take that money that we would have spent for those items and put it into the school building stabilization fund um they have like maybe like a golden mind of correct me if I'm wrong but the number of the sticks on my head is somewhere around 400,000 or so per year theyve agreed to this they have agreed to this and that's amazing it's it's very generous on the School departments yeah point of view and they they see the need to contribute to the project and they're they're doing it so um in the out years when the roofs come in there's one year that's very thin as far as other capital projects for the school but the next year is pretty heavy so we may see a small number going in in 28 or 29 but the next year kicks up to 800,000 so they save the money in one year and pay for it the next which is great and all that money will go into this stabilization I think you're missing one thing on this that we had I don't know school's going to do that school is going to do the is doing that but it's going to send the money to CP CPC so it's not but it's decreasing our contribution okay okay I I see I see the logic now yeah so we canag on another 100 number is actually a little over $2 million for yeah so I don't know and the 30,000 unspent School spending I think is part of the changes we made at the fiscal policy which was uh basically saying if the schools turn back funds at the end of the fiscal year then those funds would be applied toward the school building stabilization on the following year correct so they back 30 unofficial until we get the certification back from the state to say that yes the schools 30,000 free or if they do more less will adjust that wonderful it's absolutely wonderful it was a have a good meeting right I think the thing is you know the takeaway from it is the schools real ize how um how important the pro the Shaker Lan project is and um you know I think we've it's it's important for all of us to sort of be rowing in the same direction when it comes to this and being able to defay uh these cost and thinking ahead and planning ahead is is something that U is absolutely necessary to move forward a project that this scope so um so it has been I agree with Steve it's been very hardening so so basically you take the $1,910 th000 you add another 120,000 on that and then that's that's where we are uh in terms of a contribution to the school building stabilization fund so just just for clarity we already have the million dollars in there or we're putting we know we we have put Baseline doesn't contributing another million we're not we're going to end up with a balance of two million 3 million had last year a million from last year yes yes so just that's the Baseline number we're if I can get to the next slide uh so then take take the um fure fund Balan is about 3 million another $120,000 onto that so so the Baseline was what we were going to contribute this year we started with a million now we're adding two million this year yeah correct right and a lot of that has to do with the fact that we just We've Ended the year better than what we thought um with with in terms of free cash so again that figure has yet to be fully certified but we we think we're close um at this time so so again if you're looking at you know three you know 3.2 million right now in that um it's it's a great it's a great way to start and begin to plan for what we know is going to be the biggest project we've ever funded as the town and just give you some some idea of the levels here last week at I meeting talked about taking that number reducing the construction costs and the number that I used was for the low of $4 million 4,880 adjusting for this we're probably around $6 million now what we can do because of the school changes because of the extra we're able to put in and that doesn't count what could happen in future years if the school decides to contribute a little bit more but it's all positive for that it's it takes down that tax bill see first hadst this plan last week we I was concerned that it was going to be at the expense of the out budget and that's not what I'm seeing so I'm I'm very very happy here that's what we'll see on that Super Saturday session yeah yeah that's awesome so so uh as far as the capital Improvement plan um the we establish our our capital budget based on um our fiscal policy uh and and come up with an amount um so the total uh amount that was available for Capital Project funding in FY 26 is uh 1,568 616 um for the proposed budget before we've made any changes to the schools we were roughly at about 1.3 million that mean that meant that the 200 is about $270,000 is available so we've already kind of accounted for um the school projects in the prior slide but the 270,000 that's available um I believe we'd be transferring that over and looking at Robin make sure right to the capital stabilization fund and that's we reduce what we're taking out of stabilization for the fire truck by 270 uh yeah uh it would be essentially something that we were contributing now to the capital stabilization which would then be utilized to pay for that yeah right so um uh a couple other things uh OPB um our FY 26 budget includes a baseline contribution of $843,000 5 3,374 so roughly about 1.5 million just to remind everybody we make contributions to OPB OPB stands for other post employment benefits such that if we have say um a a police uh officer who retires at 56 we're obligated to continue to pay for their health benefits until such a point that they become Medicare eligible so is that that a something that's been identified through uh municipal government as an expense we continue to try to get ahead of that by making these extra contributions um we have this um audited every other year uh so um we um what is the what's our schedule now I think when do we think we'll be fully yeah full audit or that right 26 so right right and I think that in terms of the schedule we were looking at the schedule earlier Robin how many more years are we looking at it right it changes upon who who yeah Investments right we were looking at it the insurance we think they they count that out very well so that's gonna probably change next year right that right we have benefited um in terms of um you know with with OPB and uh retirement in terms of those extra payments just because the market has been doing doing very well so we've we've benefited from that and U um it's it's allowed us to make a few tweaks to both of those C before the how does the level of the extra contribution compared to to last year because I know we had still made extra but reduced the amount of the extras how do this compare to our stand standard extra yeah yeah um I can't that the original so that Bas line c43 it was much higher I don't have this sheet of your right Cuts but it's between opv and pension that cuts from the original budget was significance yeah yeah I not on me uh but both of them we were able to tweak both the opep and the retirement numbers and mainly that's because both of the the valuations were uh were done on on both of them meaning we were already you know within our uh within our goals and and adjusted it accordingly and that 843 the only reason we put the extra money to it was on this last valuation report the Assumption of a health benefit increase with 8% right and the actual is going to be somewhere in 15% this year so we're putting the extra in it just to keep ahead of that increase because what the report showed is a 1% change off that 8% double my liability so six times that want to stay what that number is oh yeah no no I understand the extra the extra wonderful P paint on your debt early all that I'm just I'm just I know we had we had always been doing extra and then we reduced the amount of the extra and I'm just so this is and this would have been a very good year to reduce it even further till we saw that change in so it's basically even extra is is is so $1.3 million higher for M sex with the prior from the prior valuation what we have for this year so op's one thing and then yeah right right so that's that's what what Robin was just saying so we we actually reduced that from our initial take by 1.3 million um so the budget includes a baseline contribution to the retirement um fund for Middle sex County of about 2.6 million and then the extra contributions about as close to 400,000 so just south of three million so this is continually looked at by um um by the retirement fund as an audit you know auditing that and changing looking at what that looks like same thing with the opep so uh in this case we benefited greatly by the fact that um the market was what did you say Steve 20 20% grow 20% yeah close 20% so we benefit from that when the market performs well and lowers our um um it alwayss our requirements so that interesting looking at these middle six County Retirement numbers if you look at our unfunded liability in 16 it was 22.3 million in 2024 it's 22.9 million it's almost 23 million even though we've been contributing so much extra our unfunded liability is actually increased and add employes salaries are going up the Val of the bying but the unfunded liability is not decreased but by doing these extra payments by keeping up we're not fing if you see what I funded is ACC and yeah against what county is we way ahead of count right right it's one of the it's one of those sort of strange things and that on on paper you're right it's it seems as if we you know we're just treading water but if we hadn't been making those payments it would be just that much harder to treading water is better than Ving that's that's point so um Steve had hinted about um benefits or mentioned that earlier uh we are this is one of the line items that we're increasing significantly um this is uh we're looking to increase our benefits by 95,4 181 or basically close to 16% it's broken down by 15% for active employees and 17.5% for retired employees so this is the initial figure that Maya provides us with um person comes out tells us what we can anticipate um we the Maya then establishes a range that range is released uh it'll be released this upcoming Friday at the MMA meeting so um and then with that we're somewhere in that range and you know where we are U depends on on on our actual experience we've been doing okay we're kind of in the middle we anticipate if is a range we should be probably in the middle of that but um uh that will depend so the actual figure we're not going to get back until late March but um if uh this is as high a rate as I've ever budgeted for uh so um my sense is that um because of the sticker shock there'll be a lot of pressure uh on Maya to to bring that figure down but it's um you know it's no different than what uh we're seeing in the private sector that this continues to be um a real budget Buster you know to have to continue to um pay for Health Care um and U it just it just continues to be a more expensive I don't know and the service you get for it really isn't necessarily that much better so we just This Is Us planning for where we're at right now and to be determined uh in late March what the actual f here we'll leave and I think that that concludes it in terms of where we're at so uh we're continuing to look at all of these things they continue to be fluid but uh um the health insurance is at these other transfers are really big dollar items we're trying to plan for but they're also trying to compliment as well with Steve and what we as a finance team are trying to accomplish in setting money aside specifically the war the Shaker land project and our Capital stabilization fund which will help um smooth out some of those other needs that we see coming in on the capital side things so that's that's it okay great we're five minutes old five minutes old pretty good second hi hi hi thank you