All right, good evening everyone. Uh, it is 7:01 p.m. and I see that the finance committee does have a quorum. So, I will start the meeting by reading the remote script. Um, and we'll probably have a couple more of our members join as I do
that. Um, so in accordance with open meeting law regulation 940 CMR29.10, please be advised that all finance committee or FINCOM members are attending this meeting remotely. In addition, because FINCOM members are attending remotely, all votes taken at
this meeting will be by roll call vote. Lastly, if any FINCOM members are not clearly audible to his or her fellow members or any members of the public, please notify the chair, myself, um, and we will do our best to remedy the problem and we will inform the public whether the meeting will continue.
Now, I will continue on confirming member access. So, as a preliminary matter, um, I am Jillian Predigas. I am the chair of the finance committee or fin. Please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. FINCOM members, when I call your name,
please respond in the affirmative. Linda, >> yes. >> Nathan, >> yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Nathaniel, >> yes.
>> All right, great. Thanks. Um, and uh, I'm assuming Peter and Male might be joining us a little bit late. Um, but we'll see. Uh, we do not have any anticipated speakers tonight. Um, and I will thus continue with the rest of the script. So, good evening. This is an
open meeting of the finance committee is being conducted via Zoom. Speakers on the agenda will be participating remotely and the chair may allow for the public to provide comment. Please note that while an option for remote attendance in our participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public,
this meeting uh this meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast to the individual attendees unless required by law. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see and also hear
you. So, please take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording later. You can find this meeting recording posted to the WAVM YouTube channel. Thank you to WAVM for your support. For all meeting materials,
you can find them on board docs. Um, and we recommend that you follow along on the agenda as posted there, unless I note otherwise. Um, and we will now be turning to the agenda at hand.
All right. Um, which I just closed. All right. Let me open it. Okay. So, um so our agenda tonight um share it here. Uh our agenda is that we'll be sort of
talking a little bit about uh you know the general fund forecasting um some update if we have any updates on the FY27 budget. Um and otherwise we'll talk a little bit about the February 7th joint budget meeting and then we'll go
over the 2026 ATM um talking about some um of our recommendations and the draft budget. So that sort of ties back to number one on the agenda and discussion of draft articles and then we'll go on to routine agenda.
Um, are there any topics um that male or Nathan you wanted to present in specifics based on the general fund or the cost of living expenses? I think that might be an item we kept on there just in case, but maybe there wasn't a specific plan.
We're going to think about it based on what came out of the February budget meeting, which sort of leads into topic number two. Um, >> I willert Oh, go ahead, Nathan. Sorry. >> I was just gonna say I I don't have anything new at this time. Nora, I was going to defer to Nathan on
this one. And certainly, uh, Nathan, if you do have anything that you would like to, you know, send or delegate, you know, uh, please feel free to let me know. More than happy to do anything, but nothing at this point. >> Okay. Excellent. Um,
so I was hoping that Whoops, that's not the right button. Um okay. So our other topics for tonight are talking about the debriefs.
So the February 7th um budget meeting, the joint budget meeting we had on Saturday. Um sort of any feedback um that I can take back to the select board about that meeting or the other members of that meeting. Um, I mean, I
think I'll start out saying I was uh I was glad it was a remote meeting because I'm I am still currently feeling a little bit under the weather. So, if we don't have a long meeting tonight, I won't complain. Um, so, but I think given the
circumstances and the weather um that it was as productive I think as a Zoom meeting could be since only sort of one person can talk at a time. Um, I think that we covered a lot of important topics. Um, I feel like it would have been great if we had a little bit more alignment on what
the top items, like the big ticket items are and sort of what the priority there is. Um, and you know, that's that's feedback that I will sort of take back to David um at their next select board meeting too probably um and just say, you know, I think this is something that
we would be great to align on. I know there's, you know, these water needs. Um, I did get clarification that the it sounds like the rate hearing for the water sewer is probably going to be at the beginning of March. So, um, that I think is something where they would
present if there is potentially going to be an override for water, what it might look like if it was either a full override shared between the override and your enterprise, so your current water sewer bill, or if it was completely on the water sewer bill, what that would
look like. Um, right now I don't really have clarity on that, but I think that will be something that's very interesting. And we did get clarity that this proposal would sort of not add capacity to the water, but would
sort of take a little bit of pressure off of our current capacity. Um, so it wouldn't necessarily allow for a lot of new growth. it would sort of just be like meeting our current needs based on the water sewer master plan.
And that was the one of the figures I circulated around that I can also pull up. So this is um this is the figure that was taken figure 44-4 out of the
water sewer master plan. So, um, I couldn't email the whole thing around since that file is so big, but this is it's a little hard to read because the quality is not that great, but Rockland is this one right here. Um, and
like the dotted lines tell you like the current daily use and like the future ad. So, like this is what they would like to add for capacity. Um, is my understanding how this graph works.
So, I'd have to double check what the I think MDD is the maximum I'm like thinking of science words. It's not the maximum dose. Um, it has something to do with the maximum and the minimum water uses. I think, but I have
to pull up the water master plan to double check the abbreviations. >> Maybe daily demand. >> There you go. That sounds right. >> I'm I'm just guessing. Yeah, my my science brain
my science brain CCD and it goes drug dose is not what this is. So um but yeah, so this graph is sort of just meant to show you sort of about how much capacity this Rockland um one of like these are all of our different
water sources um to give you an idea of like it's not necessarily going to offset all the water needs that we have. So, but like I said at we expect more information with like the the water rates presentation and I think that'll
be the beginning of March, but I would keep an eye on the select board um agendas because it'll be posted there since they're the water sewer commissioners. >> Um this is sort of a random question. I was just looking over some of like the
notes from the the joint budget meeting. It seems as as if there was like I think like a $67 million um figure that was thrown around for like the total cost of the water master plan. Do I have that right or am I thinking of something else? I just wanted to confirm.
>> Yeah, that's what I see at the very last page. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And and I know that there's also like a $67 million I think figure for the DPW garage as well. So that's uh interesting I guess. Um but thank you for confirming. I just wanted to make sure I
had the numbers right there. >> And what was interesting was >> at the meeting they said that doesn't include interest. So that's like just and so that's how it gets like a lot more with what Greg was asking.
Yeah. And that that number is just my understanding for like the water like the treatment and all the the things that are outlined in the master plan. It's not um like you said, it's not for the the DPW garage or other things that
are not in the the enterprise funds. So, >> I'm I'm curious uh how many of you have dug into the uh water treatment master plan? I mean, I've had this copy like on my desk since the uh since the last town meeting with there the handing out. It's it's a big document. There's a lot of
information in it. Um I've tried to read it a couple times and kind of bounced off of it. Um, so I'm wondering if anybody here has managed to It feels like they have like a good grasp of it. Um because you know with water being so central to you know our future growth
and like you know our financial stability as a town um everything stability as a town um if we're to present any sort offormational packet at town meeting it seems that having a good gloss like a good summary
that's in like layman's terms for people would be a really helpful thing to have. I haven't, but it is in theory right up my alley. Um, so I mean I can definitely take it as an action item to look into
that. >> I would also say right below >> if you go to the um >> let me um let me let me share my screen quick. Um,
if you go right here, there's also a trifold. There's like a brochure about it, too. >> So, like I would maybe start here cuz this is just two pages. >> I like that. >> This is like their their version of their summary. So, like this like
obviously the the whole plan is the green button here, but the tri this was a lot more digestible for me to get the highle points if that makes sense. And just on this main web page, it sort of talks about the main systems, the key challenges and like what immediate action we have
to take. So, um, for me, the website was pretty interesting and like the little in the in the margin or whatever you want to call it, there's like sort of talking about all the different things like, you know, how they take all these different samples
and how many wells we have and blah blah blah. So, like the um, and it also answers a lot of questions that we get. Like I've had a lot of people be like, "Why don't we just connect to the state water?" Like, and you can see being studied like you
know, how is this going to impact your rates? You're like, um, you know, we do have some water from those lawsuits of um some money from the 3M lawsuits as well. Um, but like that's not obviously enough to cover the whole
$67 million. Um, but we did also get some grants. um and you know stuff like that. So for me this the trifold bro sure was very helpful um and
come it covers a lot of those things. The good thing about the master plan is that when you have a master plan you can apply for grants too. So like having that document is important for those things because it shows that there is like planning and that the some of these
things have like a rough I don't know if they have formal quotes. Um so like that type of a planning is necessary to be able to apply for a lot of these state grants and the federal grants. Um but for me I think this was very
digestible to at least understand the key points. Uh, and I think that could be really helpful for us to like build off of. And like if you're thinking, Nathan, of any type of a like a summary or something, but there should be like a digestible summary that's presented at
the water rate hearing because if you go back and look at the prior water rate hearings, he sort of takes this master plan, makes it more digestible in like I think there's like less than 20 slides like and sort of just talking about that. So
>> yeah, and to jump on that just a bit, the reason I haven't looked into this is from what I've seen from Justin, we are very lucky to have him as a DPW um uh in that position. He seems to be really on top of a game and his uh focus on water and making this effectively
his, you know, holy grail project for this town is is very impressive um professionally. So that's just why I haven't from what I've seen from my interactions is you know at this point I just trust him. Um but if we ever do need to go dive into the engineering on the deep side I can always you know feel
free to tap me in. >> Thanks. We appreciate your expertise. >> Um but yeah I also did want to like open the floor if other people want to have comments about sort of the February meeting or anything you'd like me to take back to the select board. Um, we've sort of been talking
>> uh a bit about this uh already, but it seemed to me as if one pretty big takeaway was um kind of I think the phrase was like boiling like a lot of the information that we were discussing at that meeting down in like an easy format for the public and it seemed like that that tied in really quite well with
like our own sort of public education like agenda item and stuff. Um and I know I think Mr. McCarthy from the Maynard Voice was talking about um sort of the importance of that as well, but it seemed like there was a lot of agreement there maybe in terms of this this kind of resource that we've been talking a lot about and you know the
water stuff is just one example of that. So, um I know we were talking quite a lot about doing something sort of in advance of the of like the annual town meeting. Um, do we think do you think we would maybe be including some of the content from the like the
budget review meeting as part of that as well or like obviously water would go in there as well, but like what do we what are we sort of thinking of like kind of putting in that cuz I guess it's it would be good to start planning for that kind of pretty, you know, far in advance and stuff. I don't know how others feel, but
>> yeah. And I was actually going to ask Peter if he had any of the prior ones. I tried to look for some prior handouts we've had in the past. Um, and I can try to circulate those. I'll put that as an action item for myself. Um I think it's kind of for me it's kind of
hard to plan what to put in a handout until I see what the articles are like as one member. >> Um >> No, that makes sense >> because it sounds like you know maybe this override won't be requested at this meeting. Maybe there'll be something else. Maybe, you know, and the FY27
budget is still being shaped as we talked about at the meeting. So, the schools are still requesting a certain amount that's different than what was granted and um you know the thing with aset having a slightly different evaluation or um like the cherry sheet
data. So, that's um there's some costs that are shifting around based on the budget that we were talking about last time. Um and you know this is not I would say unexpected. Things do change um between now and when the draft
articles are written. Um but we are facing some challenges. So we should be getting the healthcare numbers soon. So hopefully those will come lower than expected and that might help alleviate some of the challenges for the budget this year. Um but those
numbers as far as I know are not out yet. Uh, I think there there are some general uh things that we can plan for. I mean, anything that's like specific to, you know, overrides and and like new uh proposals at at town meeting, yeah,
we're going to have to wait on. But, um, some some of my notes that I've made from previous meetings are um, you know, what are our major needs as a town? Um, I jotted down like roofs, water, school budget, but you know that that that's probably going to be informed, right, by what overrides we have, but those are
also the condition of the road. That's always going to be an issue. Um, things that we we can talk about how our budget is tight. We have services that other towns don't. Um, I jotted down small city, micro urban, um, information
on how things in town are are paid for, you know, like break down like like this much is coming from residences, this much is coming from the business, this much is coming from, you know, state and, you know, state aid, and we I mean, for that last part, we can use last year's budget because we know what
that's going to be. It's not a moving target. Um, so I think I think there's there are at least a few things we could start to think about uh that just be generally informative for the public. All right, that's really great. Take a
note. Anyone else have any feedback you'd like to share to the group? Well, um I mean on the topic of the meeting this past weekend, uh we didn't talk about the roofs very much. And that was like my main takeaway from the
previous meeting in November was that it was like roofs and HVAC systems are really big and it seemed that, you know, maybe there's a grant we can apply for. Um so we're kicking the can down the road a little bit and maybe they'll just be like fortuitously um happen happen
together at the same time. But I I I wish we'd had more of a conversation about how we're going to be addressing these like I mean if they're really in critical condition. Um I I wish we had more of a long-term strategy for uh maintaining some of this basic
infrastructure in town. I I just looking at my notes, I see that someone used the phrase that um that the town is good at being uh scrappy with grants, which I thought was sort of funny. Yeah, it does seem like someone I think had like a specific grant in mind for like the Fowler roof, I think,
particularly. So, we can only hope that that would pan out, I guess. But uh yeah, I I'll say one thing that just is when we're preparing for annual town meeting, you know, I think we have to look at that cost of living and what Greg was saying is, you know, just with two and a
half and blah blah taxes are going to go up about $300. And then with the trash, it's nobody's saying what the cost is, but I looked at other towns. It's going to be around, you know, say another $300 to $400. Now,
already you're paying for trash stickers. So, the marginal cost is going to be another couple hundred. And then if it's going to be another 350 just for the water, we're looking at a closer to $1,000, which is like a 10% increase. And I
think we have to be very clear about and the water rates are going to rise anyway, whatever. Everything's going up. So the cost of living I think that would be really good if we can focus that so that people know and expect and can make
their decisions um you know acc accordingly cuz it's going to it's it was very troublesome you know the takeaways from Saturday with the health insurance with the schools wanting to bring back fifth grade teachers
um with the water with the roofs it's very cons it's very concerning on how how we prioritize and how we're going to fund these these services. And I for one was fooled. I went to the fire station. I don't know. I checked my
email at like 6:30 and I didn't check it. The emails came in at 7:30. So >> yeah, >> I knew when I got there it wasn't. I was like, there's nobody here. >> I don't know if anyone else went, but I got fooled. I checked the website. It said no, it's hybrid. I said, "I'm going
to get my butt down there." But didn't happen there. >> I agree though. I'm anxious to see what the especially on the water side. I ran into Lindsay at Ski Club and she's like, "People are just going to panic over a $25 million override." And so to know
those other options will be really helpful. I I think >> Yeah. >> But >> yeah, it's a lot. >> It is a lot. It is a lot. and and already we did, you know, the town did two overrides last year and to come back
>> another year outsourcing the trash. Um, you know, it's a cons. It's a concern, I think, for everybody. For me, you know, it's a concern. We've got still more green matter to pay
for. It's tough. It's going to be tough, >> right? >> And nothing is nothing is like outrageous, right? You can't say nothing, you know, we're not doing anything that we should don't need, right? It's nothing frivolous. Yeah. And I I think if we can
contextualize it within like this isn't like a Maynard problem. This isn't like Maynard is mismanaged. like there there are like structural issues with you know prop two and a half with the and like inflation being way higher than two and a half for the past five six years um
there you know I mean we have unique issues with water but um the cost of insurance that's not a Maynard issue the cost of education that's not a Maynard issue um uh Justin likes mentioning that uh Hudson has raised their water rates by what was it 20% year-over-year for
five years like that's like that's an eyepopping number and if if we can show how like other communities are pressed like around us and I mean that's that's very informative for me. I think it'd be informative for other people as well.
>> Yeah, I think that's actually trying to think of how to to phrase this. I mean I agree very very heavily with all these concerns. Um I guess maybe an anecdote. We had a I have a project at work where a requirement was missed and uh they have very strict
square footage requirements um on the high level for funding that was approved and gone through but then the the requirement that was missed pushed against their program requirements. So they had to lower their square footage and it took someone very high up talking to the tenant to say guys we shouldn't
look at this as a loss. We should look at this as what we would have been at at the first place. Like this is where we should be. this isn't, you know, we we got lucky, but we shouldn't have been lucky. And I think finding a way to phrase it and have it digestible like
that might be a better twist as well, cuz yes, these increases are high, but if we had done our due diligence in the first place, they wouldn't be high because we'd be there. Uh, Nathaniel, you also had a a really good point, I think, from the the budget
meeting about like what's the cost of like not doing this maintenance basically because I guess, you know, when we present people with like a warrant article, it's like it's a choice between like it seems as if it's a choice between, you know, paying a large amount of money and paying nothing at all. Whereas, I think in actuality, it's a choice between paying a certain amount
of money now and maybe like a larger, more serious amount of money, you know, later when the the infrastructure breaks in a in a worse way. Yeah, I thought that was a really good point from the budget meeting and I'm I'm wondering if there's, you know, down the line some way we can incorporate that into the public education stuff because it'd be good to have. I think
>> I don't think my question was received that way. I feel like people heard it more as uh I don't want this to happen. Is there a cost on the other side? But yeah, no, that was that was my goal there was like, you know, we keep talking about, you know, $25 million override. Yes, that's a lot, but it's 25 now.
>> And then if you add up all the required and the problem is it's so hard. That's like putting the resources into this kind of study is honestly a waste but and doom and gloom. It's it's scary. But if there was an easier way to do it or if it had already been looked at, yeah, those costs of maintenance that would
have been applied to the water because of it, all of these, you know, this brownwater improvements and emergency fixes we keep having to do, this all adds up and it's all costs that we wouldn't have if we did this $25 million, for example. >> Exactly. >> And it's just so hard to quantify that.
um and pointing at, you know, inflation on a project and that kind of stuff. It's not that's not a great It's true, but it's also not clear enough. It's just assumed. So, I don't know. It's a tough one. >> And also the capacity, like we can't grow right now. We can't add on, you
know, things that bring revenue into the town and that's a cost. And so, being able to expand and grow and what that 25 million will allow us to bring in potentially is a factor, too. I think the 25 build isn't for growth. I think it's for stability, right?
>> Oh, >> maybe the 25 is for stability and the 67 could be for >> 25 is for So the 25, but you're still >> to maintain. >> Yeah, you're completely correct though that cost like you can't do the growth until you get the system to a point
>> grow it. So like it is included in there. But yeah, that loss of revenue coming in. That's how I tried to frame it at the meeting was that you know if we don't do this we don't get growth but our expenses are still going to go up and if we don't get growth the two and a half% does not cover that gap. So at
some point we are going to just have our taxes creep up and up and up because we simply have our expenses go up but our income isn't keeping up >> due to the setup that you know Nathan was hinting at the two and a half% just it's a systematic problem. Um I just don't know how to phrase it well because
I can't word Smith as as well as others. Speaking of like $67 million cost, did anything ever happen with like us being able to use Actton's DPW project? I feel like I feel like there was some discussion about like a little while back, but I don't know if anything happened there.
>> I I I I don't think that's going to happen. Um I don't remember where exactly where I heard about, but I feel like the update was that we're that's not okay. It works anyway. >> Yeah, makes sense. I would hate to ask this, but it might be worth it for um Jill to reach out to Greg and poor
Justin might get angry at this one, but um the like if they had to pick if the DPW and the town were to pick essentially between those two pathways, water improvements or their garage, they're going to pick the water improvements. We should have them start
looking at those costs for the because I mean, he's right, he still roofs over everyone's heads, etc. that opportunity cost on the the garage might actually be something they need to start looking at what that cost is because it's also an inevitability. If it's, you know, 50 million, that's a
$17 million difference. Maybe we go one, you know, it would affect a lot of the decision- making here. So, food for thought there. I think all very good discussions. I mean, I guess I I want to reiterate what I I said at the end of the uh the meeting on Saturday is like I I I I want
to have like a dedicated line item for capital improvements or not even like just maintaining the what we already have, you know, repairing roofs so they don't collapse and wind up costing more money down the road. I mean, I I don't want to keep putting it off just because
um we need to like educate the public because I I think everybody is like aware of like the issues with like leaking roofs. people are aware of the issues with the uh potholes and road conditions. People talk about the sidewalks. People talk about, you know, the brown water. Like it I don't think
that it's, you know, maybe there's concerns about like how the town is managing the money and paying for it. Like maybe people have this general idea that we be more being more efficient, but I don't think that there's a question that we
need to do it. Um, and I I feel like the public has, you know, when when the town has presented a case for more money for the schools or the senior center, uh, in the past, people have come out and they've supported it. It's been contentious, but at actual town meeting,
it's, you know, people understand they they vote like way in majority yes uh, for it. I think people would come out for like an infrastructure um, operating override as well. All right. Do we have any other topics we'd like to bring up specifically about
the February meeting? Uh the joint budget meeting. All right. Not hearing any. So, I was hoping Peter was going to be here for talking about the ATM since he nicely made uh the
spreadsheet about the FY27 updated budget. Um, but he's not so we will persevere. I'm screen sharing. Okay. Um, yeah. So, I think, uh, it would be good,
it would be better, um, if Peter was here and we went over sort of this budget. Um, but basically looking, this is sort of looking at each of the different line items that make up the general fund. Um, and sort of where these things are and where
they're changing. Um, Peter has made some notes in here. Um, which I honestly I'm not gonna pretend to follow, but there was a slight variance between the detailed and sort
of the PDF version of the general fund that's been going around. And I think Greg acknowledged that at the meeting on Saturday um that there's like a slight discrepancy. So, um, I didn't want to talk to this, uh,
unless Peter was here, but sort of just it's something that has been noted by, I think, all of the key the key players. So, did anyone else want to bring anything up in specifics on this document?
All right. Yeah. So, and I think for the FY27 budget like we talked about I think in our last meeting um and also um that we talked about at the the last meeting was um the asset is going to be
slightly increased from what it was in the past. um based on sort of the cherry sheet. So I think that that is um and also coming together on what the final school budget's going to be. Um so
I can invite I can invite as I can invite the mayor schools um to come and talk to us if we'd like to get them on the agendas before we start getting really swamp with articles. Um I sort of wanted to open it up to the committee um to see
if we thought that would be value adding. If we have questions in specific that we'd like to ask these different committees, um it is sort of a tradition I would say to have them come before annual town meeting and sort of talk to us specifically about their budgets. Um
and sort of why they're requesting different items. Um, so for example, for the Maynard schools, we could ask them more about the positions that they're proposing to add and sort of the rationale on that if we want to do a deeper dive there. Um, but I did want to
sort of open that up to the rest of the group to see because I could see if, you know, I wouldn't invite them both, I think, to one single meeting. I think I would just invite one at a time because it would be sort of involved. Um,
but I think for me it might be a little more pressing to get the mayor schools in here since we had the differences in the two different budget lines. Um, and just understanding a little bit doing the deeper dive into the slides maybe Brian didn't go in into that were in the
appendix. Um, but I did want to get the rest of the committee's opinion on that. Yeah, definitely makes sense to couldn't agree more. Um, for sure and separate meetings I think makes sense just because yeah, it probably will go for
sort of an extended uh, you know, period of time and stuff, but I I I agree with that. >> Yeah, I think the Maynard school is first, too. There seemed to be still questions that weren't quite or we had questions for them at the joint budget meeting even
that we could talk about more individually. >> Yeah. Okay. And where is it? So this is still Still the um ideal timeline here from my understanding is that
the deadline for all of the articles including citizens decisions will be March 19th. Um and then all of our recommendations will be due April 15th. So um so we'll have a meeting on the 23rd of February
um March 9th and then March 23rd and then April 6th and then our recommendations will be due before our next meeting on April 20th. So we only have four meetings between now and when our recommendations are
due. And I only have one article that has been submitted um from the retirement board which I think I circulated to you all. So this is an article and I can pull it up that we got
last last year that got voted down in town meeting. Um >> I believe our recommendation was also in in doing in voting it down. I believe the our recommendation was followed. I think our recommendation was to vote it down as I recall.
Yes. Yes, it was. Um, so this this is a new article. Um, and I was actually going to look up the prior year. Um, so it wasn't at the town meeting. Uh, it
wasn't at the special town meeting. It was at the annual town meeting from what I remember. Yes. Um, so I'm pulling it up here. So, all right. So, let's uh I don't know.
So, this one is talking about an annual stipend of $3,000 to the retirement board um effective January 1st. So, um, and then it talks in here about how master law allows not less than
$3,000 and not more than $4,500. Um, so this is also what was this is literally copied and pasted from last year's article. Um, so nothing has changed
um in terms of the article and It just seems like they're they're coming back with the same article is what I'm trying to say. They're not increasing the amount of money. Um it's the same request. >> Is that
I mean I guess is there's nothing that disallows someone from just presenting the same thing over and over and over again. >> I was wondering the same thing. Like is there not like a a cool down period almost like you know take a break? >> Uh that's a good question. I was looking
over to see if the Mass Journal of Law numbers have changed because I have the old article open from the town website on a se separate page but all of the Massachusetts Journal Law articles of sites is the same. So,
>> it might be good to get them in because there was also one budget line item that went up way more than Greg had anticipated. It was retirement. >> Yes. >> And I think >> they were going to be like self-funding or something. They were going to um I
forget the exact word, but >> yes. So, the retirement um I thought I thought that I circulated that response um but the retirement board did respond to me >> saying that the 6% increase is um >> not due
not due to the um the recent assessment that they've just had. So, um, so I think I circulated the the, um, the audit the or at least the the
PER act, the PE RAC, the acronym there, the report that we got from them. Um, so that is the public employee retirement administration commission. That's what
that stands for. Um, you can see this is this is the report that um he shared with us. I'm pretty sure I might have circulated this for our last meeting, not for this meeting. Um, but the 6.5% is what um it's increasing by. So that's a little higher
than was expected. Um so I think this was and this sort of goes into the different assets that are in the plan and the liabilities. So this is a and it talks about the investment return. So this is sort of a
gives you like the risk the growth the sort of the results and comparisons to like prior years of how the the investment returns are working and things like that. So this is this assessment is separate than the increase
line item in the general fund. It's sort of like an overview of the health of the um retirement system itself. So um so that was shared with us. Um but they they said the increase is a
result of not not of the audits but of the um evaluation by this herak program. So, so I can see if they're available to talk um as well in addition to the schools
um on one of the two meetings. So either our next meeting or the following one, but I sort of wanted to get a temperature or a feel if there's any questions I can share ahead of time to the the committee. The main question is
for me that was already brought up by by you all is can you just keep doing this article until it passes? I I don't know how that works. >> Um my other question for them would be and we may have talked about this last time um but it would be good to get a
refresher I suppose is the the second um clause of that section of the general law says that provided further an exopicio member of a retirement board can get a 4500 per year stipend which is they didn't seem to mention that. So, I would just be wondering about some
clarity about that and if they're going to be sort of seeking that and and how exactly that works. Um, we may have talked about it last year, but we may not have. So, >> okay. So, it seems like in the article though they're only asking for 3,000 and that
the mass general law says it can be up to four 4,500. >> Yeah. Well, so it's sort of interesting in that um the the general law says that the stipen can be between 3,000 and 4500 and they're pretty clearly asking for the 3,000, but there's like a separate part of that that paragraph in the
general law that says not only is there this 3,000 stipend which they can ask for, you know, if they're asking for that minimum, but in addition to that 3,000 stipen, there's also this like separate stipen which could be 4500 and it's it's not like the normal stipen, but it's like this aggregate for
services rendered stipend. and it seems like it's it's separate from the the other stipen. So, I I would be interested in getting some clarity about that. If there's something in the general law that's not in the the warrant article, um that could be like an issue maybe.
>> Okay. Okay. All right. Uh let's see. Yeah. So, I think uh yeah. So, I'm going to send around I found some um in my article in my documents. I also found some handouts
from prior years. Um, so that's something I can link directly from the town website to give you an idea of sort of handouts we've given in the past. I think the challenge is that they were either very abbreviated or they were
was way too much detail. So, um, I think that we need to find the Goldilocks and find something in the middle. Um, but I can send you a link to maybe one like the two different versions that I recall. um on the web the town website.
I think it goes back to 2015. I don't I don't know where earlier than that lives. Maybe it's it's not online. Maybe it's only paper copies in like town hall somewhere. But um I can share that to you so you can see any of the past year ones, but I gave there's an example of like a long and short one that I'll link
directly. Um all right. And then I didn't get any updated. So, since Greg's presentation, I haven't gotten an updated like FY27 besides what he presented at the joint budget meeting. So, I think that that was a pretty good
and in-depth um presentation that's online on board docs 2. Um but like I talked about, there's still the discrepancy between some of the line items. Um particularly like we talked about the schools and we still don't know what the healthcare will be. Um
and we talked about the draft article that I received. The main one I've received is just this um the retirement board one. So, I'm going to ask them to maybe come and talk to us because I think last year we mostly communicated with them by email on this topic. I don't recall that they came and talked
to us directly, but they might have. Um cuz I'm mixing up my years now. So, I know I've shocked them in the past. Um but those those are the articles. Uh I think there was a there's also going to be you know like the standard articles
like the acceptance of the town administrator report uh the getting rid of obsolete materials like they'll be sort of the the normal items that are on every annual town meeting. Um and Greg has sent me those and I'm like
that's that's fine. Um but we need some more of like the other articles as well and an understanding of like the warrant tracker they have right now. So, um, but I'll definitely keep you all posted when I get additional articles in. So, I think and we went over the
timeline. So, we're going to have, um, like four to five meetings between now and when our written recommendations are due. So, um, that's a little bit spooky since we don't really have any articles yet. So, but we'll do our best to I'll in start inviting some people in. So,
we'll at least get to talk to people we know who will have um will be big stakeholders in the budget like the schools um the two different schools and go from there. And I'll also get the retirement board in to come talk to us
about their article. Are there any topics we'd like to bring up in addition for the annual town meeting? My understanding was that there was a robust discussion um at the budget subcommittee meeting about annual town
meeting topics and the budgets there I don't know or Linda who who's the other person besides Peter that goes through >> Peter and Peter and I were at the budget subcommittee. Yeah, there was a very robust I mean Greg did what he did
Saturday but in more detail. Um, and and sort of one of the takeaways I had from both presentations is right now it's still a little bit of a moving target because there's so much information he doesn't have like free
cash was changing. The health insurance was changing. He had just gotten the school thing. He thought aset was one way now it's another. So, there's a number of things that we really over the next few weeks really need to pay
attention to to see how we're going to balance this. Um, in the end, um, I'm trying to think if there was anything else. I don't think we talked about any other particular
annual town meeting issues outside of the the budget. And of course the the possible water, you know, water water project. Okay, that's really helpful. Thanks for sharing.
I'm sure that we'll he'll um I I don't remember if I got those documents to circulate or not. Um >> I I have them if if Do you want me to send them to you? Sure. I can circulate them to the rest of the group just
we can have for like updates from chairs and members. That would be >> great. All right. Um okay. So if there's no additional topics for ATM, um
that is those are the updates I had there. um we would be moving on to the routine agenda. So I have let's see have meeting minutes for us to approve.
Julian I didn't see them posted on board docs. Did anyone notice that? >> I didn't see them posted. So, might have >> I think the minutes are on board docs. The Are you talking about the minutes?
>> Yeah, I'm on the >> They should be >> again. I'm on February 9th. They should be, but I don't see them. >> Oh, let me look. I did it today, of course, last minute, but I remember. I'll add them if they're not. I'll check right now, Linda.
>> So, do we have to defer if they're not on board docs? Um, >> we all got the though, right? >> Um, I do have them presented, so they're up here. Um, >> okay.
>> So, we can also do it live as well and just >> sort of maybe they didn't get pushed to publish. I know that that happen. >> Yeah. where it saves it as a draft and then it doesn't make it public and I'm like >> right >> that before too.
>> Yeah. So my my only comment would be there's a 32 in front of mayor finance committee unless I just did that with my >> my fat fingers here. I might have done that. Um so these are the meeting minutes from January 26 from my last meeting. Thank
you Linda for taking them. Um, we're talking about the general fund and then planning for the joint budget meeting and the annual town meeting and sort of talking about that old potential override. Um,
and then routine agenda stuff, talking about the senior center, uh, and the awards coming up, and then sort of our general outline of what what the plan is for the next meeting. And, uh, we haven't had any transfers yet for
this year. Any comments or suggestions for this I I don't see any issues aside from the 32 at the top. >> And you're right, Linda. None of my documents saved. I attached all the documents today and none of them saved, which I'm sure I did something wrong,
but I'll I'll fix that. So, they're >> Okay. Thank you, Katie. >> All right. Do we have a vote to approve the meeting minutes from January 26th as amended? Yeah, I'll move to uh approve the meeting minutes uh with with that one
amendment. >> And I'll second approving the meeting minutes from January 26 with the amendment. >> Great. We got a move we got a second. Any further discussion? >> All right, I will take a roll call vote. Linda,
>> yes. Niguel, >> yes. >> Nathan, >> yes. >> Ay, >> yes. >> Nathaniel, >> yes.
>> All right. I am also Yes. 6 approved. Um, so that's approved the minutes from prior meetings. Um, Linda, I did also want to share that technically, um, the
meeting from Saturday was a joint meeting. >> Yeah. >> So, Greg and the select board, they'll make meeting minutes for the select board that we can use as a draft, but we're supposed to also post our own. >> Okay. All right. I will look for their >> minutes. Yep.
>> Yeah. So, once I get that, I can also share that, too. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. In in the past sometimes we've taken the minutes as is and just sort of accepted them as our own as well, >> but um we are welcome to modify them as we see fit.
>> Okay, sounds good. >> Or completely use our own, whatever works. Um okay, so I think we're up to updates from chairs and members now.
Do any members of the committee have other subcommittees or other items you'd like to bring to the attention of the group? >> I have an update. The senior center lease was approved and the lease is up there. If if anyone's interested, I was trying to read it. Um, but if it was at
the February 3rd select boards meeting um, and the lease and the second agreement, the escrow account is up there. So, it's kind of interesting. It's a 15-year lease. and the town evidently there's a non-appropriation clause in there so we
can get out of the lease at any time we want you know if we don't appropriate the money but we put aside some money as I understand it into escrow so if within the first 10 years we get out of it then the lesser would have um the rights to
that escrow account so anyway the lease is up there um it hasn't been signed I was at a meeting today with the senior center committee and they didn't know who was going to sign it if it's they think it's Greg but but anyway it was approved which is great and so once the
lease is signed the lesser has 270 days to do the con the fit out so that it's 9 months so they're thinking late 2026 it would be you know available for use by the
That was all I had. >> Neat news. Thank you for sharing. >> Yeah, >> I have something for the uh school project. Um the Eversource approval for Massave incentive was a uh
Eversource rebate for the Massave incentive was approved uh $1.4 $4 million. Uh, and if we hit some sort of um I guess higher efficiency level, then we'll get another 135K. Uh, I'm not
entirely sure how that plays into the override and everything else associated with it, but either way, it's good news. >> Excellent news. Thank you for sharing. Um I would add briefly that the um economic development committee um and
some folks may have already heard of this is considering uh thinking about adding like a a permanent sort of performance structure or shelter to the uh to the Veterans Memorial Park. Um they're thinking about a potential cost in total of less than $200,000 uh
dollars. um they're still uh you know not even close to thinking about um how that might be funded but something that they were kind of brainstorming and sort of considering at an early stage. So we will see what happens with that but that is my update to provide. >> Thanks for sharing.
>> All right. Um I did have one update that I can share too. Um so um Greg did thank us for sending over our annual report. So that has been accepted by um the town um the town for um for our annual
report. Uh I did also ask them to update the website because the terms for some of our members were not updated. Um they asked going forward if there was someone on fin that would like to be tasked with going in and making sure the committee page is up to date. Um they said that
they're aiming for all boards and committees to have one member who has access to the town website and can could submit edits as needed. Um apparently it is straightforward. Um we would probably only need to update it like once a year when people's terms are potentially
being renewed or changing like members. Um, and they said that they can provide training on how to make those edits if anyone is confident in webpage or would like to be interested in doing that. >> If that doesn't uh fit neatly into
anything that like I guess Katie might be doing already um up with updating board docs, then I I can volunteer to take that on. I I could also you do so much with the planning side, Nathan, as far as the
other things. And um so if if you want more time on your hands, I am also happy to do it. It's up to you. >> Hey, well, uh if if you feel good taking that on, uh be my guest. >> Then do it. I can I can learn.
Sign me up. >> All right. Nominated. Yeah. So it's not the board system. >> No. Right. >> Um but it's um but I can definitely put you in contact um with Greg and he said that he can help take care of it. I
don't really envision we're going to make great changes like all the time to the town website. It's going to be sort of a more maybe once a year thing when people's terms change. >> Yeah, I can do that. >> Thank you.
Um, >> and Jillian, remind me when what month are we transitioning out of Boardocks? >> I do not know. So, it was supposed to be December, >> right? >> Uh, and now it's some nebulous date. So, um, Greg is going to let us know because
I was I asked him back in January, I think, like where are we still putting stuff on boards? Um, and currently we still are. >> Yep. >> All right. >> Um, so that's a great question. So, I will definitely keep you posted as I
learn more. >> Uh, I did have one additional update which I think we talked a little bit about last time and that was about the power choice. So we actually did get like sort of a report a program report from that sort of talking about the different So there's like three
different levels you can pick from I guess in this power choice. There's the standard, the 100% green, and the basic. And they sort of went into, you know, the amount of savings in each of the tiers based on like pricing from
Eversource. Um, and sort of how, you know, the different greenhouse things are changing. And so if you if this report is of interest to you, this is something that's on board docs that I circulated and it's sort of talking
about what like different groups are taking advantage of this program. Um and you know sort of the savings not just for monetary but also potentially for like environmental and emissions. So and this is like a report that I got from
Greg of from this for the December report. So, I guess they make this report, you know, every every so often. So, I know we talked about that a little bit last time. So, I did want to let you know those things. I think you can find them on the Maynard Power
Choice website as well. Um, or at least on the town website. Um, yeah. So, I think that's all my updates that I had as well. Do any other members have updates potentially as topics?
>> Uh, I have a little update. Um, I emailed Greg this morning uh just asking for some information about the uh any plans for like the new solid waste program. Um, I was wondering about uh pest mitigation uh because you know
rodenticide bans are like have been like a topic and might be coming up again. Um, and I wanted to know if it's taking uh anything into account cuz there's a lot of I I see like people put out like single bags um because it's more cost
effective and I always and like animals will get into it uh overnight. So, just wondering if that'd be taken into account. And he referred me to our new uh solid waste management coordinator. Um, might I have their name wrong, but looks like Linda Gar. Uh, and they, uh,
told me that what they're likely doing is having a bi-weekly um, recycling pickup in like the big 95gallon carts, uh, weekly trash collection where it seems like everybody would have a 35gallon cart and would have the option
to buy a second cart if needed. Um and then uh if in like an emergency if people need an extra bag like during a holiday or uh for some other reason um
they could buy a like individual townissued trash bags for additional collection um on like a given week. Uh, so in terms of cost of living, you know, they're still doing the um the RFP. Uh,
so I don't think we're going to have any like potential costs for like a while, but there might be a bit of like a flattening of how much um people are paying for uh trash collection in the enterprise fund. If it's like you're a
one uh a one cart household or a twocart household or whatever, as opposed to putting out an individual bag or putting out you know, like right now you can like pay for like as as many bags as you want at a time or as many as many uh bins as as you need to. So that's that's
the only update I have. >> Yeah, thanks for sharing. I think it would be important once that sort of gets figured out if we can invite whomever I don't think the task force necessarily exists right now but um whomever is sort of the main
driver of that program to sort of understand potential impact would be at least from the financial side too. So that's sort of a question mark like we talked about. So that's really helpful information. Thanks for figuring that out for us.
All right. Uh any other further member updates? All right. Not hearing any other updates. Um so um I will uh go on to our next topic which is the
meeting agenda. Um so I can leave if we want to keep the sort of general fund cost of living on there right now. Um I might suggest that maybe we table that um and not put it on our meeting next time.
Uh because I don't think we'll necessarily be doing a forecasting uh on a specific topic right now. Um I was thinking to have the planning for the annual town meeting on there um our
routine agenda um and as sub items underneath the annual town meeting actually it probably would be like a separate topic itself. I'm going to invite the schools to see if they can come to our next meeting. Um, if they
can't, I'll invite them to the following meeting on March, beginning of March. Um, I'm also going to ask the retirement board if they're available to talk about their article. So, that would be under the ATM topic. Um, and then I'll see if as can come
in March. Um, so if the schools are going to be coming the first week of March, I would invite ASET to come the following week, following meeting, which would be closer to the end of March. Um, but I'll see I'll see. I would invite
the retirement board probably to talk to us first since the school either this either of the school topics will be longer. Um, but I'll see whichever school is available next week is the one that will win the lottery, so to speak, and we'll talk to them first.
Um, and go from there. But I'll offer it to the mayor public schools first because I think we have more potential complex questions for them. So I think it'd be good if we had more time between now and when our recommendations are due.
Are there any other topics other members would like to suggest at this time? All right. I'll definitely keep you all updated as I learn more. Um, it's still not clear to me if the the Clear Sky article, which was a citizens petition, um, if that's going
to go forward or not. I know that they've been talking a lot to the bylaw committee and I think other town groups. Um, so I'm not sure. The citizens petition articles are not due um for some time. So, um, so if that is
something that will go through, they're not due until March 19th. So, uh, and our recommendations are due on April 15th. So, there'll still be time in between those two, but it it won't be
very many meetings. It'll just be two meetings. So, we'll see what'll end up uh as our articles, but I will definitely keep you all posted as I get them. I will request the budget uh budget tracker, the article tracker from Greg as well to see
if they have sort of um placeholders for that yet, but it's still pretty early in the process. Um as the the town articles are not due until February 27th. So, I'm assuming at our
next meeting, we'll it'll sort of come together and we'll have a pretty good idea of what type of articles will be at our annual town meeting. >> Yeah. For Clear Sky, I get the agenda for bylaw subcommittee and it's not on their agenda this week, just that dog um
bylaw that I talked about last time. So, they were still working that out. Is that the kennel one or am I mixing that up with the brand? >> It's raising the fees on dog um dog licenses >> and and it's changing the definition of
kennel. It's the number of dogs. But the big thing was um updating fees to to you know they hadn't changed for many a long time. And then also changing the way that fees can be
um modified in the future. wouldn't have to go to a vote to town meeting. So, they could change the fees in the future, but increase if anyone has dogs inreasing the fees.
>> Yep. >> All right. >> So, that's another cost of living, right? Because I think I don't know what percentage of the people in town have dogs, but it's a lot. I would I would guess. Yeah, I would guess that's a lot, too. Yeah, I >> picked up the tag for my dog and it was
like 400 something, I think. >> Wow, >> that's a lot. >> Yeah, >> I assuming they're numerical. I have no idea. >> 4 400 being the number of dogs, not the
uh not the cost. about the cost. >> No. Yes, that's correct. Sorry. Good clarifier there. >> I was thinking cost. >> I forget. There was something about there was something about a fee. If you lose the dog tag, I think there's going to be a bigger fee for imminently that happens a lot. You lose the dog tag and
you got to get another one. >> So, >> well, that happened to me last week actually and right now there is no fee. So, I just got a new tag. Oh, it it would make sense, I guess, if they do add a fee. Oh,
all right. Uh, if we don't have any additional topics for tonight, I think that might be all for this evening. All right. I am not hearing any additional topics. Uh, would we like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:15 p.m.?
I'll move to adjourn. >> Seconded. >> Right. We got a move and a second. Uh if there's no further discussion, I will take a roll call vote. Linda, >> yes. >> Male, >> yes.
>> Nathan, >> yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Nathaniel, >> yep. >> And I am also a yes. Um so we are adjourned.