start. >> Hello. I will start off by reading our script for our remotely conducted meetings. Uh so in accordance with open meeting law regulation 940 CMR 29.10, please be advised that all 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 um to his or her fellow members or to any members of the public, please notify me immediately and I will do our best my
best to remedy the problem and inform the public whether the meeting will continue. Um as a preliminary matter um I am Jillian. I am the chair of the finance committee. Please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the
agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Peter, >> yes. >> Nathan, >> yes. >> Linda, >> yes.
>> Uh, Nathaniel, >> yes. Um Nail. >> Yes. >> All right. Um and
I don't think that this Katie is our Katie uh from Fincom. Um but she said she was running late. >> It is me. Hi. >> Join later. >> It was my address. >> Hi. They have not made it to my house,
so I might be popping off. Um, but I'm here. >> Thank you for coming. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, so I will continue on with our introduction here. So, um, good evening. This open meeting of the
finance committee is being conducted via Zoom. Speakers on the agenda will be participating remotely. The chair may allow for the public to provide comment. Um, please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public, this meeting will not be
suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast individual attendees unless required by law. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you. So, please take care not to screen share your computer. Anything you broadcast may be captured by the recording. Later,
you can also find this meeting posted to the WAVM YouTube channel. Uh thank you to WAVM for your support. Uh for all of our 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 now we will be turning um to the meeting at hand. Um, so I think the the first order of business is um I did want to
state for the record that the town hall is closed today. Um, I confirmed with town hall that it is still possible for us to have our meeting. Um, it is um a decision up to the committee itself. Um, having a meeting tonight does not violate open meeting law um because it
is fully remote uh and it was posted um in accordance with the open meeting laws. So, I wanted to sort of check and take a temperature of the rest of the committee if you would like to hold our meeting tonight. Um, or if you would like to postpone it to next week.
>> Do we have any consensus? >> I I'd like to do it tonight, Peter. >> I I I agree. Agree. >> Okay. We sort of have a stroll straw poll straw pole vote. Um it wasn't an official vote. So um if anyone any
member is um otherwise please please let me know. I did want to try to keep the meeting on the agenda since we do have that February budget meeting coming up soon. But I'm not hearing any uh any otherwise
uh any other opinions. So um I would say that we go ahead with the meeting tonight. Um and it will of course also be posted like I said uh in the opening to the YouTube channel as well. So for there people who want to participate and
watch it later. Um so our agenda tonight we're doing a lot of looking at the general fund forecasting and and um you know cost of living expenses and planning for the joint budget meeting on February 7th uh and also for the annual town meeting in May. Um, and then we'll
have our routine agenda. So, I don't think we necessarily have any specific documents right now for this forecasting for the general fund and other cost of living expenses. Um, but I did want to open the floor, I think, to Nathan and Nail if there were any updated uh that you wanted to talk on the spreadsheets
that you all were working on in the past. I I wasn't expecting updates, but I did want to leave the space open for that. Um I I don't have an update there, but um and I'm not sure if this would be the right uh agenda topic necessarily, but just I had been
looking over at some of the um uh tax information slides that got passed around uh through email. And I was just sort of interested in learning a bit more about this um like residential CIP uh tax rate shift uh which is a thing I
suppose that the town kind of does which I I personally like wasn't super familiar familiar with before but it seems like that could be uh something to it would be helpful you know for me certainly as one person to learn more about um and and certainly I imagine that would be helpful uh in terms of
some of the uh more tax related um kind of uh visualizations and like graphing stuff that we were kind of doing, you know, sort of earlier in 2025 and that sort of thing. So, I would be, you know, just interested in learning a bit more about that. And, you know, if any if anyone here is, uh, you know, pretty
familiar with that, uh, tax rate shift kind of uh, thing that we do that I would be just, you know, interested as as one member uh, in learning quite a bit more about that. So, >> and I believe this is the document you're talking about. So these were the
documents from the assessor's office. >> Yeah. So um these should also be on board docs but these were specifically for the public hearing of November 4th of the select board. So they should also be posted online too um on like WAVM
YouTube channel. Um, and it sort of was something that um, I was talking with Nathan about for like if we want to give a handout at town meeting like understanding this and sort of how the the tax rates and how
all these different things work. I think might be nice to have like a little summary paragraph in there. Um yeah, I the talking about the property tax classification.
Oops. >> It's on like pages like seven and nine kind of mainly. It talks a bit about it. Um and I guess I guess it yeah it sort sort of lists them on seven and then it explains it a bit more on nine but um
>> so just um CIP stands for commercial and industrial property I believe. >> Yeah. >> Um and basically we have a higher tax rate for businesses than we do for residential. >> Okay. So this is just the shift is really just the the difference in the
rates pretty much. >> Yeah, I think if you go up >> um where they give the percents by year >> here. So this is the shift >> that I think we've done. So I I I'm not
perfect on how to interpret this, but I think for 2025 commercial taxes on, you know, the same value would be 131% of it. So 31% higher. >> Gotcha.
>> I think that's what that means, but not positive. And just >> uh Jill, can Oh, sorry, Peter. Did you have one more comment on that? >> Uh yeah, I'm sorry. I'll be brief, but ju just as background, I mean, this comes
up a fair amount that, you know, we're discouraging commercial properties by doing this. The assessors, you know, often are recommending to do less of a shift um and then, you know, thus reducing commercial property taxes. The issue is
you know for everything we don't shift it then falls on residents residents to pay it >> right >> so you know it's expensive to you know have an they would say have a equal or level tax rate or something like that um it would be you know our tax bills as
regents would be higher. So, sorry, Jason. >> Uh, I want to go back to what Jill was saying a moment ago. Um, your suggestion that we put a paragraph about this into a handout for, uh, the annual town meeting. Um, could you elaborate a little bit more on like what what you
think would be useful to have in that? >> So, I'm trying to visual like I don't want it all to be words. I think it's important to have visual visualizations, too. Um, but I think like having a breakdown of how things are sort of paid
for. So I think we're we're not really necessarily the right committee or board to talk about how like the assessor's office works and like that would be something from them. But I think it would be important for us to talk about
like how our tax rates like I thought some of these comparisons at the back of this deck were very interesting talking about like the difference in like the home value and how the tax bill of like surrounding towns are similar andor different than we are and if they have
like split or like a single just base rate for everyone's taxes was something that was interesting to me to look at that. Um, and you know what I hear a lot is that our taxes are high and you know perhaps based on the average single
family house value relative to the tax bill. Um, that is something to consider. Um, and then like I think a lot of questions I get are
about like what do our taxes go to pay for? Um, like how is that determined? So like this for me this deck was like helpful to understand like there is a split tax rate like how does like your house get assessed? it happens every
five years like this reassessment of the town and things like that. Um so I think for me this this was a very helpful um summary like just to like think about but
what I'm visualizing in this kind of a handout is sort of like you know this is what our taxes are. this is what like communities around us are or similar communities like I think we just need to think of our messaging first before we
start thinking of the details. Um and you know I think it's also important to say like we're pretty unique like we have a lot of services that other towns might not necessarily have like we have our own school system we have you know the water and sewer and things like that
like we're almost like a small city. there was I think it was I think the word is like micro urban community or something. Um so I think it's important to also sort of frame like not just how much is charged but also like what it's going
towards and like how that's like a unique situation. Um so and that's something that you know I think we can brainstorm as we get a little bit closer but that's sort of where I'm coming from. >> Awesome. Yeah, I I took a bunch of notes on what you just said. Um, I don't mind
making some like graphs, charts or stuff, but I I I have a tendency to get really lost in like detail. So, like having having some like ideas of like what people are interested in and like what sort of things we should put forward is is something I want to keep be keeping track of.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think it's also really important to frame like what the needs are of the community because obviously each p resident might have different like wants and needs based on their life situation. Um, but I think there sort of sort of high high
um budget items that we were talking about at the last joint board meeting. Um, and as we go into a topic later tonight for the FY27 budget, um, I think it's also important because in the FY27
budget from the TA, the TA recommended budget, so the budget from Greg, he's recommending an override for water. Like it's not going to come from the enterprise fund is going to be an override. So at least in the last version that I saw.
So, >> but I think it was $25 million. >> Um, sorry, Jillian. I I saw you were at that meeting, too, but I mean that got a pretty cool reception from the select board. >> So, >> it did. So,
>> I'm just >> that's what's in the budget right now. And I think, you know, my impression was that the select board was a little concerned because, you know, we're going to potentially take the trash, you know, um supplementing the trash sticker budget out of this. And then, you know,
he's recommending potentially an override for um the water like um I think it was the water at Rockland or some some wells um for 25 million. And um that was something that the select board hadn't even seen and
they're potentially going to you know have this in the town meeting in four five months. Um so it's pretty quick turnaround. So, you know, and it that wasn't one of the things that came up in our, you know, discussion at the joint board meeting where we were talking
about things like, you know, the DPW garage and, you know, the new pool roofs and the golf course and I forget the other ones, but there was, you know, like three or four things that we were talking about. Um, and I think
talking about those upcoming needs would be something that would be good to put in our handout too, saying like, you know, these are the things that like the leaders of the town have like identified as like needs and they're, you know, pretty costly. Um, and you know, other
things might also be like the operating budget of the school or something like that because I know that this year between the the TA recommended budget and the school committee's recommended budget, I think there's a difference of a little bit less than 400K. Um, I'd
have to double check on my notes, but um, for level service. So, these are all things I think that are important to talk about. um and maybe sort of summarize so that the
residents can get sort of this fuller picture of things that might be coming up in the pipeline or things that were were requested but maybe not granted um in like the final presented budget at the ATM.
But that was me doing a lot of talking. So, I'll open the floor if anyone else would like to add on that topic. >> Um, I also would spend like to spend time talking about the FY27 proposed budget and think it would make sense to do before February meeting with the idea
that, you know, we could ask more intelligent questions. Um, I know Justin was just with us and I hate to impose on him, but I mean, one of the things that's not
here in the discussion of the 25 million override is what does it do for water supply? So, does this solve our water supply and we can go hogwire with growth or is this you know just barely keep us
level and you know Justin has you know more backup reserve but not really we're not really going to get any development out of it and that's just not clear from what and maybe it is you know he talks about Rockland phase 2 I can't say I'm
real familiar with the details of that but um Maybe it's outlined there in the explanation of what that is. Um, >> I think it's in the water sewer master plan, which I couldn't even email to y'all because it was too big to be an
attachment. >> All right. Um the other thing I would add you know certainly want to inform people but um there's also I think we have some
responsibility to have our own you know kind of opinion as this budget gets formed. Um and you know kind of by town meeting it's pretty late to be making changes.
So, if we think there are issues with this budget, now is the time we should be weighing in. Um, which just uh as a um Greg says he does have line item detail for this budget
um that he sent to me but sent it without the account numbers and then he was away for a couple of days. So, he's going to send that to me. I'll put it together. Um, Nathan, can I ask you, did you ever get FY26
line items? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Can you send those to me? >> I will try to find those. >> Okay. I mean, I can get it from the quarterly or the monthly spending report
stuff, too, which is where I usually get it. But if you've already, you know, I just need account number or an amount. Um, but I put that together with whatever's proposed for 27 and we can, you know, get more into the weeds of
some of that. >> Once I get the light items, I'll send that around to everybody. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Uh uh Peter, I think I have it in a um it's not like in an Excel, it's in I
don't know, some sort of like PDF or something. Is that Does that work for you? >> Uh no, I'll get it from the website then. >> Okay. >> This is I think that's what I that's what I get with the monthly spending report thing. So, I can just take it from there. >> Cool.
>> Uh, that's okay. Thanks. >> Um, >> yeah. >> The other thing, and part of it is my wife bugging me because she can't believe it's not cheaper. Um, and Linda, I don't know what you've come
up with around this, but should we be looking to push to evaluate again the whatever the state insurance collective is? >> Um, >> yeah, >> CIC or I forget what it's called. I
think we have to look at a lot of things, Peter, because you know, Greg is saying he's estimating now 15% for increasing health insurance, >> and I think we need to look at a lot of things. I mean, this year they did they sort of switched with some deductibles.
>> Um, which was a win-win. That was last year. Um if we look at GIC um um any other any other options or having you know as collective bargaining goes
forward you do something you know that threshold for new employees is different than old employees old employees you know um existing employees >> I know and you know I know that's complicated and takes time but it's 20%
% of our budget. We have to we have to look at it, right? It's >> Yeah. I mean, if you look at um so I'm looking at the PDF that's the FY27 general fund TA recommended 12. Um
so the total revenue increase there on page nine is 775,000. That's a little bit skewed because they're taking out the um trash fees. So that's about 500,000.
So it's really, you know, 1.275 is the increase in revenue um of which 900 something thousand goes to health insurance. >> Yeah.
>> So just you know that's this scale of what we're talking about which doesn't leave a whole lot of money for anything else. >> Right. Right. Between between you know schools is 50% that's 20% it's you got almost nothing left. Right. For
everything else. Um, did people see? So, in here it says a $25 million override would be about $357 per average mayor taxpayer. Um,
but if it were something that kind of broke the ban on new development, is there anybody who would actually think that's a good idea? I mean, I'm kind of thinking maybe we should do it.
like to ask the question about new devel if is new development what's the cost to the town of new development I mean we've got you know are we are we looking at schools increasing public safety
um what is the net benefit of new development man. >> All right. Um I don't know if I've done this pitch before. Sorry, Jill, if I'm hijacking. >> And where is where and where are we?
>> Um I would have made the apartment building >> and do we have the space for new development? >> So I would have made the apartment building next, you know, at Groover's Furniture next to CVS, you know, 10
stories. Um, so my general thought with everything with our budget and the town functioning is that we are too small a town. We cannot continue to run a school system for 900 kids and water and sewer
for 10,000 residents. Massachusetts is in desperate need of housing. I mean there will be growing pains and certainly there are additional operational costs but we would get increased tax revenue also
and I think Maynard's only path for long-term survival is you know I would be saying something like doubling our population that that's what we can offer that that's what makes you know that's what Massachusetts needs and we could offer
it if we could provide water it, you know, our school system, you know, yes, there's questions about, you know, are the schools big enough? But right now there the school system shrinking. Um, so anyway, that's my general outlook and
I don't know, and I'm I think I've made this pitch at a couple of tri board meetings or maybe not as explicitly as that, but that's why I would consider the water. love to hear reactions or
I mean uh just going going by gut here I'm largely aligned with you Peter I think that um you know growth is beneficial and uh any like infrastructural barriers to that are like a top priority
for us to overcome. I think that a lot of the infrastructure has been underfunded for like the past decade or so and there's a lot of catchup we need to do. Um it'll be, you know, painful to get there, but I I I think it's something that we kind of
have to do at some point. So that's not talking specifically about this this override or that particular well, but that's just my broad feeling. >> Yeah. I mean, one of the things with water we I think have to investigate is,
you know, what are the possibilities for MWR and does it make sense to spend 25 million on new wells if really we're hoping in, you know, five to seven years we get a MWR water. Um,
so I think that's something we have to think about. But glad to hear you. I mean, it's just so many times we go to meetings and everybody's, "Oh, no, you can't change anything and you can't grow." I mean, Maynard, I think, is too small to survive.
And, you know, we could try to join Sudbury or Actton, but um all kinds of issues there. So I am talking and I am muted. Um >> hello. I think I'm unmuted now. So let me stop
sharing. Um and I will start sharing. So I was looking up Rockland and the different well. So this is the water master plan um on the town website and um you can see that there's a couple
wells at Rockland A and they're not all pumping at their max capacity. And I believe from my understanding is it's because the treatment facility at Rockwind Dav is like not super great and it needs improvements. Um
>> is what I recall. So >> Uhhuh. >> Um you can see here in the water master plan improvements. Um I'm trying to like jump to the page. this just doesn't want to
doesn't want to help me tonight. Um, so I think this is the one that's having a lot of the discoloration challenges. >> Uh, no, >> no, that's old. >> Yeah, that's more, you know, across from 129 Parker.
>> There may be other issues at Rockland, but uh I think it's well >> about how they need to update the treatment plant itself. So it would be good to know if this override is for and
I don't know did it say in Greg's notes if it's for the treatment plant or >> thought it was for wells. It says water capacity improvements, but I don't know what that means. If it means more wells or improvements to the
the WTP is water treatment plant. >> I'm seeing some language saying um uh construction elements of the water enterprises master plans phase 2 at the Rockland wellfield. And I know from the um the meeting notes on the 12th I think that that was about 25 million actually.
So that seems like that's probably what it is. Although you know not to speculate unduly but >> Okay. Yeah. A breakdown is provided in appendix F. >> Yeah. So the challenge is that this is
just such a large file and there's no it's not hot linked. There we go. And it's F. So it looks like 67 million total. >> So I wonder where the 25 is from. >> Well, it's probably
a combination. Well, I'll go down a little bit. The 8 billion. Whoop. No, no. The 8 million in line 13. The line 11. Question is also when is this document from? I mean these prices could
be ridiculously out of date and you know 8 million is now 12 million. Oh man. See if I can scroll to the top. October 2025. >> All right. Yeah. So, I don't know quite what the 25 million is, but
>> is he saying it's the water master plan's phase 2 Rockland a well field and treatment plant? >> Yeah. Um the other thing with this is just to note and I you know it's kind of obvious and Jill highlighted it but um they're
proposing this as a you know debt override on taxpayers as opposed to trying to fund it through the uh you know water enterprise fund. >> Uh sorry thank you. Um,
and it would be interesting to know what would the effect on rates be if we did it. Um, just to know the comparison, >> right? And I think that's what the select board asked for at our last
meeting so they could understand as well. Oh, >> okay. And what happened? I thought when we um passed the zoning for the um MBTA communities, we were supposed to get some amount of millions to help with
water infrastructure so that we could actually build if someone developed that land, you could actually build. I'd wonder what other sources of of revenue might be available
for infrastructure. >> Yeah. I mean it would be nice. I at times I think we get more on the order of 1 to two million. >> Yes. >> And you know it often goes to some sewer list station or you know something like that or pipe replacement.
I don't know. My I think they do a good job trying to get money like that. Everybody in the world is out there trying to get the money. So, I don't think there's any pot. >> Yeah. >> That we're not tapping. And you know, this stuff gets paid for by residents
one way or another. So, >> I just don't want to get distracted by saying, "Oh, we should be looking at grants." There's no grants for Yeah. stuff like this. Certainly not now. It might have been with the
inflation bond stuff, but anyway. Um, >> and I also thought at the last quadboard meeting there was a more of a consensus on the things that we really needed to do was the roofs, especially at the school
and that there might be an override for the school roof and maybe other roofs and the DPW garage and then um some decision on the golf course I thought were kind of the consensus priorities.
You're absolutely right. >> Yeah. >> And I think that's one of the thing the select board raised was, wait a minute, this wasn't on the list. >> And I think part of it is, >> you know, Justin kind of has the list of all the water stuff and we kind of look at and say, "Oh,
yeah, but that's Enterprise." And, you know, figure out how to do it there. And now he's, you know, seems to have convinced Greg that that's not really feasible. And so >> yeah, and this is a paragraph I wanted to mention too. So I think it also is a
combination like you were saying of the the grants that might be potentially available for this. Well, this I think is lowcost financing. >> Um 2% bonds. >> Yeah, that's true. But it's a it seems like it's a limited
program. There was some time sensitivity to it. At least from what I understand from the select board call. So it might be good to have Greg andor Justin to talk to us about this in the future. I think tomorrow there's a budget
subcommittee meeting too. So I think some of these these topics will be discussed there in detail as well. Well, yeah, but actually, it may be a good venue to put these questions out to say I I think Greg and Justin should just do a document outlining these other
issues. Um, so that we could all be working from the same, you know, information. Um, >> yeah. >> So, actually, yeah, I'll try and advocate for that tomorrow.
Thanks. Yeah, that that's uh that that was sort of what I was hoping you would advocate for or at least bring it up in the discussion tomorrow with all the persons. And >> Linda, are you there tomorrow? >> Yes, I am. Yep. >> Okay. All right. Good.
Okay. So, um let me stop highlighting words here. But um I think this is this is I would like to talk about the FY27 topic. Um because I think that will that ties into our
current discussions. Um but I did also want to pause if there was any other further discussion on these forecasting. Um, and if anyone else is requesting additional documents or anything, I can help liaison with to different town
groups like the assessors um to get those additional documents and things. >> Okay. I propose that we sort of continue talking um on the FY27 budget. So, this is technically topic number three, but we can circle back to topic number two,
which is the February joint budget meeting. Um, because I think they're kind of sort of related. I had a question on the FY27 budget about Asabet and Jill, you had sent around something today on Asabet, I think, or re Yeah, was it today on Asabet?
>> He's showing a 28% decrease in Asabet. Um, and I w I couldn't quite figure out where that came from. Was it this >> was it related to the other thing where we had some
excess? Was there a big savings? >> No. >> Um, so um Jill earlier sent the email or you know forwarded from Greg. >> Oh, it's less students. It's less students. Okay.
Yeah. So there's that we have less students. So there's assessment has changed. Um the document that I sent around today was um do or um is reporting that the Asabet school
district excess and deficiency. So every year that's some it's like it's basically like free cash but for school systems. So, like it's sort of something that they budget in their budget and then they'll have this this um additional money over at the end and they sort of it's sort of like free
cash, but it's it's um that's not what it is. It's something unique for the school system. Um and this year it's like 1 million 277Kish, maybe 278K.
Um, and that's something that if you have a good budgeting system, there's always going to be a little bit left over, if that makes sense. >> Yeah. >> Um, so I think it's not entirely clear right now what that will be used for.
Um, usually we'll have aset come and talk to us and they talk about their excess and deficiency and sort of what they do with that. But they're two separate topics. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. So that seems reasonable. Okay.
Hopefully and we don't see that we don't see aset till late till >> closer to the spring. Yes, but I think they've given Greg a heads up. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
>> Um, just for point of reference, the FY25 budget for Asabet was 27.4 million. So 1.2 million is what, like fiveish%, 4%.
U >> yeah and I think for the access and deficiency they always strive for like two to 5% at least from what I remember in past >> presentations. >> So it doesn't seem unreasonable. No, it didn't seem unreasonable to me,
but and I'm sure in the past budgets they've presented what it was, but I couldn't before this meeting. I couldn't uh I couldn't find the prior presentations. They're posted on board docs, but shoveling the snow made me swell. So,
yeah. All right. Were there any other topics that we'd like to talk about as a group for the 27 budget? I think we touched we touched upon all the ones I wanted to bring up, which was taking the trash um stickers out, making the enterprise fund, which
is it's sort of really not described here. It's just not in the general fund anymore. um and what that might look like. Um that was one of the ones I want to touch on because that's tying into the cost of living here. Um and we've already talked about Rockland um with
the water. Those are the two the two big things I wanted to bring up and highlight. And I think if you read through the document here, these are like Greg really nicely outlines sort of the big ticket items or like sort of the big things and the key takeaways. He's like
bullet points here. Um and I think you know one of the things I was going to actually ask you Linda was that you know the the override increase is in this budget but my understanding is the still there's no lease signed yet to to lease the space. Is that true?
That's true. >> When I went to the COA meeting, CO on aging meeting last week, the report was that they were the closest they'd ever been. And they thought, again, this is sounds like a broken record. They thought it was going to be
on Tuesday, last Tuesday's select board meeting, but it didn't happen. And so what they said at the Council on Aging um meeting is that they would use the funds that are in this year's budget FY26
for furnishings and other things that they'll need. So they thought they would be able to spend that money this year. And I did look at the warrant article and it looked like the language was broad enough that that they would be allowed to do it. But I don't know where
they would put all this stuff cuz right now even if it was even if the lease was signed, they didn't think they would be able to occupy this space until well into FY27, like November, December, if it was signed
last week. Um, and evidently it's just with the lawyers ironing out certain conditions in the lease, which no, no one's really seeing that I know of.
Yeah, I think lease negotiations are usually executive material, so they're not >> Yeah, they do it in executive Yeah, they do it in in executive session, which they which they keep holding the or they I don't even um know if they
hold them because they don't, you know, they've um haven't finalized the lease. So, that was disappointing. Yeah, thanks for the update though. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. And one of the other things I did
want to bring up about this is their uh recommendation for the reserve fund to not be 250 for 27 but be 20. So yeah. Yeah. So I mean I think there's a lot of pressures you know at the end of the day the uh
the revenues and the expenditures have to balance out. So, um, it's, uh, as one of our former members would say, a death by a thousand cuts. All right. Are there any other topics we'd like to talk about for the FY27
budget? I think this will be the main topic at the February budget meeting. So now I'm circling back to topic number two for tonight. Um so on the February budget meeting um it will be held
February 7th. Um I think I said that and it hasn't been posted yet. Uh I'm not so I'm not entirely sure. I think it'll be at the fire station. Um but in the past it has also been at the library. So uh I
will double check when it's fully posted but um it is technically a joint meeting between the finance committee and the select board. So if there are certain topics we would like to talk about we would also have some time on the floor
to talk about things. Um I as one member would like to encourage that we have like a collaborative discussion between the different boards. uh sort of like we did last year. I thought that was a pretty good discussion where we were talking about what priorities were. Um but obviously, you know, in this
this TA recommended budget, there's sort of this water um water capacity improvement that wasn't wasn't on anyone's radar at the last um the last joint board meeting. So, you know, water's always been on everyone's radar, but I think this
particular request um was not. So, if we have strong opinions about things, we also could have the floor to talk about things, but I'm not entirely sure. As one member, I don't know if I would recommend that we do any deep dives into like spreadsheets right now. I think
that they're a really helpful tool. Um but for me as one person of the committee I would be liking to have a high level conversation between the different boards and sort of aligning and saying what are the priorities as sort of the town leaderships and being able to present that to the
residents so they can make an informed decision. But I'll open the floor if if anyone has uh any comments. No. >> Yeah. I mean, I tend to agree with you
>> on Jill. I tend to agree with you. I think, you know, particularly where we have this detailed budget and I think there's a little more information here than I feel like I've had in prior years. I my intent is to, you know, look more
at the FY27 budget and focus my thinking on that as opposed to, which is, you know, the exact opposite of what we try to say, do multi-year planning. But anyway, given where we are in the schedule, um, to focus on FY27
more than, you know, multi-year stuff for at this particular point in time. Yeah, I kind of feel like we're at a crossroad and there's a lot of
unique things in this proposed budget, you know, like taking the trash stickers out and, you know, proposing an override for these things. And I think these are things that definitely deserve like a robust discussion. And I think we're just sort of at that
point like where you know health insurance like the increases for health insurance and some of our larger items are just so big that like Peter said it's getting to a point where something has to change.
Either you know the town increases and we increase our capacity or we start cutting services like And this is also why we were sort of bringing in the assessors thing is that you know every five years the the town
is um assessed And that just happened and the average the single family value average home was increased on average by 48k. So I think Nathan when we usually do those assessments
how much is this? I don't even remember off the top of my head how much do you remember how much the average household value is when we use our forecasting? Uh yeah, it is $66,000545. >> Wow. That's the average house of Mayard.
>> Ouch. >> Average single family house. >> So when Yeah. I think when I started on the committee it was 360 or something like that. So >> yeah, I I was going to guess the number as 457.
>> Yeah. Huh. >> So, and I think it's important to write that in these sometimes because people will think, well, I'm an average family like and maybe it's, you know, a totally
different number. And this is why I tell Greg to put it on his slides and stuff when he presents it too because I think it's important important to know what that number is because >> y >> if it's going from you said it was like
606 to almost 650. Pretty interesting. Okay. All right. Do we have any other burning topics we would like to discuss as a group about the FY27? Bring up the numbers. Maybe that's too small
item stuff. Oops. I think I' I've said everything I was going to say about this, but All right. Okay. And if we have any additional questions from for like the assessing office, I can also have them like come and talk to us.
Um, but I think that the for me the documentation we got I think was enough. I might go watch the November 4th or I think it's the fourth meeting of the select board as well. All right. I'm not hearing any additional topics for the FY27 budget.
Um so I would encourage um our liaison to the budget subcommittee meeting. If um you hear anything interesting, we could talk about that at our uh at our next get together. >> What's today? >> Uh
I'm pretty sure the budget committee meeting is tomorrow, right? 27th. >> Yep. I have it on my calendar for tomorrow. Yeah. >> Okay. Um >> All right. But we don't have another meeting before the February meeting.
We do not unless we make a meeting on February 2nd. >> No, I don't know that we need to, >> but >> I don't know that we need to either. I don't think I I don't I would I would as one member not advocate for like a formal presentation from our group. Um
but I did want to bring that up as a topic. If we feel there, you know, we have very strongly sentiments about a topic. Um, we can make a presentation, >> but I as one member do not think we need
a formal presentation. Um, I think I would basically just pontificate like I did tonight. >> I think that's fine and correct. >> Okay. All right. Um, so I don't have any other topics for the February 7th joint
meeting unless anyone else does. All right. So I'm not hearing any topics for that. I'm not hearing any additional discussion for the FY27 town administrator or TA draft budget.
Um, I think we had a good discussion there. Um, we did also discuss a little bit about, you know, a potential handout that we might be doing. We have time for that. We won't have to make that until, you know, I could see what the printing
deadline is for the the annual town meeting or the ATM, which is I think at the end of May. So, we would probably have to figure that out in April. So, we have time for that. Um, the annual report that we have that is due to Greg.
I have to send that to him after this meeting. So I did get an updated um typos one from U Male. So thank you for that. Uh I appreciate you. Um so this is basically the document.
I'll just display it briefly. This is a document talking about who our members are when your um term expires and sort of who we are, what we do. Um changes in membership. Um, it talks about the reserve fund transfers, which I believe we checked in our last
meeting, and that was the only request. So, I'm going to delete that. Um, and then it just basically talks about, you know, what our charge is and what our goals are for the year. Uh, and this
is pretty standard, um, yeartoear. Um, there's just some, you know, updates on changes in membership. there's no changes. Um, so if everyone's acceptable with this, I I'll give this over to Greg. Um, but
this is pretty much what we wrote last year, just with some some items updated for this year. I think a handout at annual town meeting would probably be more impactful than trying to shove a bunch in more
information into this document. I think it's great. >> Looks great. >> Okay. >> And thank you for doing it. >> I mean, thanks male for making >> making it consistent in my tenses. And
>> it was all nons substantive edits, just proof reading, but happy to do that. >> Well, didn't spell my own last name until I was in sixth grade, so I appreciate it. All right.
Um, okay. So, I will get that over to Greg. Um, so that's that's sort of all of the discussion that I had tonight for annual town meeting. I don't have any additional articles yet or draft articles um to share with you all. Um,
so uh I can pull up the timeline here just as a refresher. So, we should be getting the draft articles soon though. Um, so they should be due February 13th. Um,
like those are placeholders and then February 27th should be like the actual final articles. So between like the beginning and middle of February, we should start getting articles.
I'm sorry Jill just because you said um I think you said I don't have any more to share with you. Do we have some that are is it the rodent one is the only one out there or >> so
I don't have the what I mean is that the only thing I have to share with you is sort of the general TA bud the TA budget for the general fund right now for sure that's a big one. >> Yeah. some of his um
and of course if there's going to be a override proposed that would be an article for the $25 million. So, but I don't have any additional information on that right now. So, that's what I mean. I don't have any like actual draft articles yet. I just the general fund and if there's going to
be an override for the water. >> Um >> I think at the Go ahead. >> Sorry. You know, I was going to move slightly onto a different topic or raise something else, but
>> nope. This is this is sort of all I have for the ATM topic. So, >> all right. U just because you included it. I think it's here related to Yeah. Um people may notice there's that memorandum of understanding between the
town of Maynard and the Maynard public schools um that talks about you know essentially allocations of non-school budget lines to the schools I think for
you know state reporting as far as I can tell this just formalizes something that has already existed um you know maybe
in that somebody wanted us to have a formal document and probably the state department of education. So I think that's why that was created. I don't think it represents any change or anything new, but
um just because I stumbled across it looking at this topic. >> Yeah, this is also my understanding from um the select board meeting last week is that this is something that exists. Um, and I don't I think the select board
requested like if this existed in the past like to see sort of how it's changed because this is the 2026 budgeted one. Um, so for instance on the health insurance,
the big one, the it says the school pays 4 million. But but really we're paying for it all, right? It's just how much is in the school budget and how much is in the how would that work? Like the total
>> is not in the it's not in the school budget. >> Yeah. Uh but when the schools report to the state the total spending on education >> Yeah. >> it's the school budget plus all these line items.
>> Oh okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Any further discussion on this topic? All right. All right. So I don't have any additional topics for the annual town meeting right now. Um which means we'll
be moving on to the routine agenda. Nope. No one else has any other feedback for the last topic. Nope. Okay. It's good because I'm running out of voice. Um All right.
All right. So, um Linda kindly shared the the minutes from our last meeting on the 12th where Justin was our guest talking about water sewer. But just to note, he came to our meeting talking about all this stuff and didn't
mention a $25 million override either. >> No. >> Well, and that's why I asked about overrides if we're expecting any and for the DPW garage anyway. And he said no. So, >> yeah. Well, not for the garage, but Right. At >> least the water's cheaper than the
garage. Seems like a bargain. Under section four, there's an A and a B, but there's nothing under B. Oh. >> Oh, dear. >> I Yeah, I guess that that should be uh on the same line as the B. There we go.
Thanks, Yeah. So, and this is also noting the FY27 is it's proposed the to go from 225 to 205. So just something to note for the future
unrelated to these notes. Um do we have any discussion or further feedback on the 12th minutes? No, accept the minutes. >> I'd make a motion to accept the minutes
of uh January 12th. >> I'll second to approve the minutes for January 12th. >> All right. So, we have approval, a second. Do we have any further discussion? No. All right. So, I will take a roll
call vote. Uh, Nathan, >> yes. >> Linda, >> yes. >> Male. >> I didn't actually hear. I saw you say yes. I didn't hear. >> Yeah. Sorry. Yes. Yes.
>> All right. Katie. >> Yes. >> Peter. >> Yes. >> Nathaniel. >> Yes. I I am also yes. Um, so these minutes are approved.
Uh, all right. And then we're on to our topic of we're on our onto our topic of um updates from chairs and members. Um would anyone have any updates for us
from the various liaison committees or otherwise? >> I have some from bylaw committee. Um >> okay >> they um one interesting thing is they were asked to study so I don't it won't
be on this spring town meeting but um if to look at the bylaws to possibly reverse the order of town election and town meeting um because they thought it might be more efficient especially in years when we
were looking at an override to have the override the election and the override right vote come after town meeting rather than before. So that's just a topic of research to to be coming up possibly in the future. And
then there's likely going to be the citizen initiated petition in the Springtown meeting on the dark skies um bylaw amendment which would um >> um they're still working that out. um it
would apply only to new outdoor lighting. So no existing flood lights that you have would be impacted. But what they're really working on the citizens um the it's sponsored by Green
Maynard. We're really working on enforcement. It it appears that it's would be very difficult to locate who would enforce this if at all. But anyway, that that's likely going to come up, but it's still in draft form. And then the third one
that they talked about, which I believe will be at the Springtown meeting as well, is um sponsored, I believe, by the select board of the clerk. And it has to do with raising the fees for dog licenses and making some other minor
changes on um the definitions of say kennels to be more in line with state statutes. And so it would raise the fees and then it would have a clause in there so that um without going again before town
meeting to change the fees that that the select board would be allowed to change those fees on a periodic basis. They haven't changed for a long while. So likely a couple of bylaws that we'll see at the springtown meeting. And then I said I updated on the no lease yet at
the senior center. That's it for me. Excellent. Thank you for sharing. Do any other members have updates? All right. Um I can share updates from my side. Um for the annual town meeting, we'll we will once again have the
recognition awards, the employee rec um or volunteer just recognition awards in general. Um the nominations will be submitted by April 20th and then the awards will be on May 18th at annual town meeting. All the submissions will be confidential. Um and the finance
committee will be part of the the committee that choose who gets awarded these. Uh I think last year um Nail you were the one maybe that volunteered to do that. Um so like as one of the representatives of FinCom. Um so I was
sort of wanted to put it on people's radar to reach out. We still have time because it's not going to happen until April. Um but if anyone would be interested in participating in that program as sort of a represent representative of our committee. Um, basically how it works is we can't
actually talk about who's nominated in our open meetings because it's like a secret until ATM. So, um, the person would sort of volunteer, read the submissions. Usually, it's a handful. It's not too contentious. I would say um, in past years, um, and sort of say,
you know, I would recommend the following people for this award. >> Last year, everyone who gotten nominated got an award. So it was, you know, it was not contentious at all. It was very uh very nice. >> I feel I did it the year prior to you and Nikil and it was the same
nominated got one. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So we don't have to decide tonight, but if someone is interested uh in sort of taking on that role, um let me know. Uh you can think about it. I'll reach out to the committee again closer
to April um requesting if someone would like to do that. Okay. Uh if there's no questions on that topic, I do have a couple other updates. Um so, um we have our conflict of interest and ethics uh that comes from
the state. We do have to do that. Uh there's like a small like a short review course I think every year or so and then a slightly longer one every couple years. uh that will come from I think it's called skill burst is is the group that is a real thing and you should
please do that. You don't have to send we used to have to send our certificate of completion to the clerk's office. We don't have to do that anymore. Apparently there's some new computer system so they can see that we've completed it. Um so I just wanted to remind you of that. So please do that. Um, I did also want to share with you
all that the Maynard High School senior project will have like a community partner event that will be um on February 10th. Um, so this will be setting the course for community partnerships between the high school and the minor and professional community. So
you can connect with past volunteers um you know celebrate accomplishments um and you know impact the community. So if you're interested in that, um I can share with you a um an evite that we got
sort of as a group. Um so it's in the evening on February 10th at the Elks Lodge. So it is not virtual, it is in person. Um so >> um Julian, not to interrupt, I had a just a quick question about the um conflict of interest training. Um, I got
an email um, a couple of weeks ago and it said that the the correct due date they said that there was an error saying that it was due in January and that the correct due date is actually um, September 17th, 2026. Um, is that did
other folks um, see that and stuff? >> I think each of us will have a different date that it is due because we sort of have joined on sort of a rotating schedule slightly differently. Um, so I'm not sure that we'll all have the same due date.
>> That that makes sense. Um, my my other question there would just be um since I would likely have like uh had to have have left the committee before September uh 2026, do I still have to do the training again or do I not need to do it again?
>> You do not have to do it until it is due is my opinion. >> Excellent. Excellent. Love to hear. >> Thank you. Yep. All right. So, um, so yeah, so if anyone's interested in that, um, the high school senior project, please let me know.
Uh, and I believe that is all of the updates because I've already talked about the um, ectos and deficiency for aspit. So, does any other member have updates you'd like to share with the group?
All right, I'm not hearing any. So, um, so we'll move on to our future meeting agenda planning. Um, so February 7th will be posted as a joint meeting. Um, between the different groups. So, our
next meeting will be on February 7th. Um, it'll be in the morning because that's that's a Saturday. Um, it should have a virtual and an in-person option. from my understanding. And usually it starts
Oh jeez. Can't remember. Peter, does it start at like 9 or does it start earlier than 9? >> No, usually it's 9 to 12. >> Yeah, it's 9 to 12. Okay. Um, yep,
great. Thanks for the confirmation. I also double checked the calendar. Um, but you were quicker than me, so that's great. Um, so yeah, so expect that to be posted soon. Uh, and then following that, our next
budget meeting would be on February 9th. Is that right? Oops, I'm in the wrong year. Yep. February 9th. No, that's not right. 2025. I'm still in the wrong year. Okay,
February 9th. So, um, at our next meeting, I would propose that we have a debrief on the joint the February 7th, um, joint meeting. And, um, I would have a topic for the annual town meeting topics. So, we could
discuss any general fund updates. Um, we could discuss any articles we might get. I don't know if we'll have any by the 9th because they're not due like until the f end of the following week. But if we have any drafts, I can talk um I can share them and we can talk
about them and present them. Um, I don't know that we want to talk about the forecasting at that time. Um, and other cost of living expenses, but if we think that's a topic we might like to discuss,
um, I can put that on the agenda. Nathan or NL, do you have any opinion on that? Are you planning on updating those sheets anytime soon or do you think we could leave it off that meeting? I >> I don't think there's any new information,
>> right? >> Yeah, I I >> Yeah, maybe I could um do some comparisons between towns or some or something, but without like specific direction. Uh I I wasn't planning on having any any update for the next meeting.
>> I'll defer to Nathan certainly as well. Okay. Would it be at all useful to talk about how you're forecasting forecasted what the actual TA budget of FY27 is? Does that make sense with words?
>> Sure. >> Okay. Do you think that would be a useful exercise or >> I mean you obviously can't predict a $25 million override but >> Sure. But, you know, a 15% increase in insurance and you know what we're
how does that compare to like what we were what we were looking for? You know, what falls outside of the of like the average. I think that would be really helpful to look at actually. >> Okay. Okay. So, I can put that um
I'll maybe put it as a um like an annual town meeting discussion. Maybe it's something we can think about for the handout. I don't want to make the hand out too much about like future tasking or whatever you want to
call it, but um it might be good to just mention um and I think some of those numbers are still liquid because we're still this free cash I think still isn't like fully certified yet and things like that. So,
um it's not like the final final budget. Um yeah. So, and then I would just have routine agenda. Um, I think depending on how the I would say depending on how the discussion at the February 7th meeting
goes, it might be good to like actually talk about what what is included in a potential override. Um, but I would need to post our meeting notice with the topics before that
because I have to post like for the February 9th meeting, I have to post them like the Wednesday before, I think. Um, or maybe the Thursday before. So, I'm kind of tempted to put something on the agenda to see if Greg or Justin can
come talk to us about what this override is and if it increases the capacity or not. But we may have that question answered at the joint budget meeting. >> So other than that, I don't have any >> additional topics. Does anyone else have any um additional
topics you would like for our next meeting? >> Sorry. Um not for the next meeting, but uh you know it could be but probably too early. Um so we should be trying to schedule the
schools, right? So you're right that you know essentially they're 390,000 under their requested budget. So >> it would be good >> to start talking about what the impact of that is.
Um, I think that's only the only one so far on the FY27 budget. I mean, I would say let's >> also talked about at some point at having the retirement people come in
once their audit was done because there there was a pretty big increase in the retirement. I think it was almost 7%. >> Yeah. But then we're waiting on audit. Yeah.
>> So that >> so I asked Greg about that and the audit is still currently not finished or it's not finalized I guess at least what I said in the message at the be like a couple like a week or two ago. Um, Jill, I don't I don't know this, but
I I think the audit may be a little bit of a red herring. I I I assume they do an annual audit and I don't think it provides a whole lot of information but I don't know maybe I'm wrong but um
you know I I don't know when they're expecting to complete it but I we probably could get information on the increase without the audit. >> This is true. But maybe the audit, you know, solidify, you know, it's what they base their, you
know, there's the audit includes, you know, forecasting and future liability kind of stuff and maybe it is what they use to set the rates or something. I don't but might be worth I I just don't want to wait and all of a sudden it'll be April 20th and
right why it's a 7% increase. Yep. Okay. So, I got that noted. So, we have three or so different groups we're potentially interested in talking to. I'll see what people's schedules are like um
and send that out accordingly. All right. Any additional topics for future meetings? No. All right. Well, if there are no additional topics at this time, uh I believe that was our
our last topic of the night. Would we like to make a motion or would we like to continue discussion? >> Uh, I'll move to uh journ the meeting at 8:26 p.m.
>> And I will second. No, Katie, you got it. >> I got it. All right, I'll second to adjurnn. >> All right, we got a first. We got a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I will take a roll call vote to adjurnn. Nathan,
>> yes. >> Linda, >> yes. >> Male, >> yes. >> Katie, >> yes. >> Peter, >> yes.
>> Daniel, >> yes. >> I am also a yes. So, we are ajourned. Thanks everyone. Have a good night. >> Good night. Night. Good night all. Bye. Have a good one.