Thank you everyone. I would like to call to order tonight's meeting of the Milton Select Board uh Tuesday, July 14th at 700 p.m. And I'll ask you all to rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everyone. Open it up for
public comments. Have 21 minutes in public comments. We have three minutes individually. I think I saw one name on our inerson Mr. Joe Biden rejoins. I will let you know when you have a minute left.
>> Minute left. I'll make it quicker. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Joseph Byron, president of Milton Firefighters Local 116. Um before I begin, I just want the record to show that it's been exactly 380 days since our CBA expired.
And uh I believe that we've been more than accommodating and moving the prover proverbial needle. Um I'm here on behalf of the firefighters of the middle fire department because no one is a bigger advocate uh for them and their families than me. I'm here tonight to talk to you
about something that doesn't show up on a budget line item. Uh but it should weigh on every decision you make about your Milton firefighters. Uh what it costs us as human beings to do this job. Uh, when the emergency tone drops in the
fire station, we don't know what we're walking into. Sometimes it's a car wrapped around a tree. Sometimes it's a family pulled from a burning home. Sometimes it's a call involving someone who has harmed themselves. A scene no person should ever witness, let alone carry home with them. We see
we see things that stay with us. Images that don't leave when the shift ends. We carry them in the apparatus bay, at the dinner table, in the middle of the night when we can't sleep. It's not just what we witness. Cancer rates in the fire service are rising at alarming pace, tied directly to the
toxins we absorb scene after scene. That's a threat to our health and it's a threat to our family's financial future. Because none of us have the privilege of knowing whether we'll make it home the next morning or whether our families will be provided for if we don't. And
yet after that the most difficult calls, we show up to the next one with the same respect and professionalism that our mil residents deserve at their most vulnerable and frightening moments. We do this because we chose to serve this town. But that choice comes with a weight. And that weight doesn't go away
because our shift ended. That's why financial security isn't a luxury for your Milton firefighters. It's a necessity. When the firefighters worried about making rents, affording therapy, providing for their kids, what happens to their family if this job cuts their life short, that stress compounds every
trauma we already carry. But this isn't only about dollars. It's about feeling valued and respected by the town we serve and the leadership that manages it. Knowing that the people we protect see what this job takes from us and stand behind us because of it.
You cannot ask us to be strong for this town and then leave us financially fragile and feeling forgotten. Supporting our firefighters respect what we carry. And by doing that, you support the families waiting for us at home and the families we may leave behind. In
closing, I want to say this directly to the members of this board and to our town administrator. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, hug your spouse, kiss your kids, sit at your tables, and be present. Because in this line of work, some of us don't always get that chance.
Again, we ask you to remember that when you decide what your firefighters are worth. Thank you. >> Don't see anyone online. We have anyone [clears throat] else in person. >> Thank you.
>> I would like to close public comments. Uh, next for discussion, town council join us. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. So I think this is to uh continue or to add some light and context to a
conversation that happened at town meeting regarding personnel. >> Exactly. Exactly. Um >> so I wanted to kind of give an overview of sort of a summary of what your your pre-long personnel bylaw provides. uh
also what the town administrator act provides in regard to sort of the personnel issues and then we can have a discussion for where there may be some inconsistencies and potential things that could be further cleared up be a
bylaw amendment um potentially you know some ways to maybe clarify the special act a bit and really what direction the town wants to go in. So um obviously uh you have the town administr the town administrative special act
along with the personnel bylaw that provide sort of various authorities and responsibilities in regards to the town's personnel administration. Uh the problem as we talked about is the documents are not entirely consistent with each other. Sometimes maybe even
overlapping in ways that cause some confusion. Um, and even you know what you want to avoid happening and to my knowledge hasn't happened yet is you run into a situation where the town does take some action uh personnel action which can have a lot of different
repercussions and an argument come up that whoever took that action didn't necessarily have the authority or didn't go through a procedure that may or may not be applicable or mandatory in in the personnel bylaw. you like to, you know,
I always say doing this for 33 years is I see many more cases that win or lose because the proper process was followed than because the town did the wrong thing. Like you do have those occasional
cases where maybe the town didn't act properly. I don't mean this town. I'm talking any any city or town. More often it's a mistaken process. and mistaken due process. So you you want to keep those things as easy to follow and clear
and concise as possible because that that eliminate you know that minimizes the chances for that happening. Um so the other issue that you have and it's my understanding that the person on board has not been filled in five years
though >> several years >> several years. So that begs the question, well okay, you have a bylaw that talks about all these different personnel boards and responsibility of course that mean you have a personnel board. Um and you know that would render I would say for the most part many of
those provisions to be directory rather than mandatory but you know that's my position and opinion. I mean, somebody [snorts] else couldn't have on, you know, fighting the town or with a different opinion couldn't make an argument that, you know, there there's plenty of things that it says the personnel board shall be doing and
they're not doing it because you don't have a personnel board. So, what are some ways we could we could fix that potentially? One obvious way is to fill the personnel board, but I will say many towns that I've seen over the years have similar bylaws, not exactly the same,
but they haven't filled the personnel by for a number of reasons. Like a lot of these personnel bylaws are pretty old. They go back, you know, 20, 30, 40 years. And let's face it, you know, town, municipal government, especially, you know, human resources become much more complex and complicated. work
forces but probably looks very different than it did 25 30 years ago. So, is it feasible to have a board of of volunteers, not elected officials, but of volunteers um
contribute in a significant meaningful and legally effective way, you know, meeting for two to three hours a month when you have HR personnel needs that need to be met on a daily basis, you know, it's become a big part and, you know, Milton is luckier than a lot of
other places because you actually have a a full-time HR person in addition to you know you know with the town administrator and the assistant town administrator. So a lot of places don't have that. So is is is the model of the personnel board even one that you want?
Is it in the best interest? Is that an effective way to deliver personnel human human resources? In a lot of places you're not the only town that has a personnel board but it hasn't been filled in a long time. I've seen other places have them fill in 10 20 years and they eventually cleaned up their their
special and they tried to you know some of these places they tried to fill positions and could fill the personnel board and they just couldn't get people that were willing to do it. Um, so I will note before I summarize sort of the bylaw for you, uh, chapter chapter
sections 108 to 108 of 41, which is what authorizes the town to have a personnel wage and classification plan and a personnel bylaw. One thing that should be clear, it does not require that there be a personnel. It provides an option. The town may through a bylaw, which you
have done, provide for a personnel board, but the but the but the laws that allow you to have a personnel bylaw and allow you to have a wagon classification, they do not require the downtown personnel gives you the option to have. So summarizing, and I'm going
to try to move through this pretty quickly while hitting on the key points. What your personnel by provides in summary is that it applies to all town departments and position except for the salaries of elected officials. Uh school positions are excluded from the
personnel bylaw and all laws including the town administrator act and union collective bargaining agreements which supersede any conflicting provision of personnel bylaw. So your personnel bylaw says A, B, and C. Your police union
collective bar agreement says deenf will prevail over anything in conflict uh under the personnel. It provides for a personnel board of five members who will be appointed by the moderator for a term of five members. Obviously currently you don't have to conflict. Uh
it provides that the personnel board and the town administrator shall administer the by the personnel bylaw and determine among other things equitable rates of compensation. [clears throat] It says that the personnel board shall from time to time establish rules for the administration plan which shall
include uh specifications for minimum requirements of the reclassified position. You shall from time to time review job classifications and job descriptions covered by the plan in the salary schedules provided in the plan. The reason I sort of include that is is that something you think should be done
again by an appointed personnel board meeting a couple times a month maybe not even that often or obviously your administrative team that you've hired you know to to to run the tap. Um and there's also we'll get into sort of what what the town administrator's authority
personalizes under this under the uh town administrator act. Um it states that the wage classification compensation plan shall not be amended except at the annual town meeting but the personnel board upon the recommendation of the town administrator
and appointing authority may add abolish or reclassify positions of the plan and uh change salary rates. all such actions uh would be effective until the final adjournment of the next town meeting. Why that's important is you decide in
the middle of the year that you really need a new position or you can't hire somebody into a position at at your your rates and you deem it to be such an important position that you you have the appropriation to offer more. You can make those changes to the classification
plan, the wage plan, but then it needs to be ratified and amended properly at the before the end of the of of your next town annual town special. So again, in August, you decide you need to hire somebody at a different rate or you need
a new position or or you're changing a position. You no longer need this title, want a new title. It gives right now the way it's stated, it gives uh the personnel board upon the recommendation of the town administrator uh to add
those positions and those would be effective until formal, you know, amendments are made to to to make that part of the the wage classification next time meeting. Now again, I think this is one of those provisions that causes some confusion because
it probably has been done in practice by the town administrator or the important authority and the town administrator is the important part for many positions. And I think that's probably the way most cities and towns intended to act like the personnel board should be advisory, but it shouldn't take the decision like
things still need to move quicker than that usually, right? Like if we need to make a decision, you know, the personnel board may not be meeting for a few weeks. So again, is that the best way to sort of run these things? And that's a decision for the town to make. Uh the personnel board shall maintain the
employee classification and salary schedules. Again, subject to the collective bargain agreements which shall take precedence. The personnel boards authorized to advise the town administrator during collective bargaining planning process, which shall not participate in those bargaining sessions. The select board shall
establish and periodically review affirmative action and equal employment goals and guidelines from the town while the personnel board would be cooperation of the town administrator shall monitor and strive for diversity in the town workforce. I think everyone agrees with the second part of that but now you have sort of three different potential
agencies you know setting these policies and trying to to you know establish these protocols. It's just a you know so that's you know can be that can slow things down. Uh the personnel board sh personnel board shall report annually in
writing to the town prior to the annual town meeting on the classification salary schedules and the efforts of the town to achieve the goals of this chapter. And then it says uh notwithstanding any other provisions, the town administrator shall be entrusted with the administration of the town's personnel system, which shall
include but not be limited to personnel bylaws, personnel policies and practices, rules and regulations, annual employee performance review of the CBA. Now again, that provision is a little bit more consistent with your town administrator act, but I would argue maybe a little inconsistent with some of the other provisions I just sort of
summarized and ran through it. Uh it does say the town administrator shall appoint, supervise and direct all department heads uh and town employees except for the consolidated facilities director who are under the jurisdiction of the select board and the town administrator shall also prepare and
keep current a plan establishing the personnel staffing requirements for each department. Uh no person shall be employed to the town unless in the opinion of the town administrator such person meets such requirements. the town administrator and other and other appointing authority shall ensure fair
treatment of all applicants. And then really just one other provision I want to highlight is uh it states that the town administration fix the compensation of appointed officers and employees within the limits established by the appropriation of town meeting including
without limitation employees who serve under or uh under elected or appointed town boards, commissions and committees. This is a provision I want to highlight that I do think no matter what is decided I think is problematic. In instances where an appointment is
recommended uh to the town administrator by an elected appointed town board commission and committee. Such appointment recommendation will only be altered, returned for further consideration or denied when the town administrator determines that a town personnel policy or practice has not
been allowed. That provision is problematic to me in my opinion because one it it's I think inconsistent with town administrators appointing authority stated in other places but it's also far too narrow. There might be a number of different reasons the town administrator might
select a certain candidate that would be certainly much broader than just the town administrator determining that a town personnel policy practice is not followed. So like that's a provision that I'm guessing that's really that provision probably been in there a
while. It needs to be updated at the very least. Um so without going through every part uh it it then goes on to talk about you know different types of personnel issues and how the plan is maintained the wage and classification
plan is maintained and ultimately amended by town meeting. Um, it does state that the town administrator may start such an employee in a higher step than prescribed and the town administrator encouraged with the written opinion of the department head and special circumstances warrant such
action. It does speak that the signature of the personal board chair is required to effectuate such action and again I think that's problematic in my opinion and and obviously not the current practice because you know person
um all right it does provide for dispute resolution process which does keep the final decision um with the town administrator. So the town administrator act is a b is is a bit more succinct on these issues. It does supersede the
bylaw to the extent that there is there's inconsistencies. It says the town administrator shall supervise, direct and responsible for the efficient administration of the town's day-to-day operations. Town administrator shall appoint, supervise, and director all department heads except for the consolidated facilities director. Town
employees who are under the jurisdiction and town employees are under the jurisdiction of board selectmen. With respect to department heads, only such appointment shall become effective. On the 15th day following the day in which the notice of the appointment is filed with the board of selectment unless that
15-day period uh unless within that 15-day period the board of selectment by majority vote of the select board I apologize by majority vote has voted to reject the appointment and soon voted to affirm the appointment. So basically when the when the department head is appointed it goes notice goes to the
select board. in 15 days to disagree or to to overturn basically that recommendation. Otherwise, it becomes effective either at the end of that 15-day period or if you meet sooner than that and say we confirm the town ministry department. This is with
department heads on. Um it does say that the town administrator uh may enter appointment contracts with the fire chief, the police chief and the deputy chief and the town accountant and that the town administrator may suspend or remove any person appoint that he appoints he or she appoints with and that with respect to any such removal of
that person as the department head. The town administrator shall first inform the board of select and with respect to that. Um, and then it just kind of goes in a bit more succinct way to say the town administration shall be entrusted with the administration of the town personnel system in conjunction with the
personnel board which shall include but not limit to personal policy practice and events. It basically goes through all the different the different personnel issues. Um, it does say that the town administration shall fix the compensation of all points of officers and employees limits established by the
appropriation of the town. So obviously as I said at the beginning there's some overlap and some inconsistency between the special act and and and the bylaws and you know obviously the main decision is does the town want to have a
personnel board they do they think that's the best for some want to have because if that is a decision and I'm not saying it is you know you don't want to just have it unfilled forever right you have a personnel board it's presumably [clears throat] supposed to be filled and that personnel of course they're
given given a bunch of obviously authorities and duties and I do think there's some consistency problems so you know obviously if the direction is to not have a personnel board the best thing to do would be to amend your personnel bylaw
to obviously centralize those functions with the town administrator's office make it very consistent with the special act and obviously you know remove the personnel reward from the bylaw I mean I know in some ideas my ideas you know you could just go without a personal board
completely if that's the you know the direction wants to go and another sort of maybe middle ground area is don't have a personnel board but maybe have like a human resource advisory board and you know that would I think obviously once the bylaw sort of amended
to be consistent would clarify that you know the authority you know lies with the town administrator um subject limitations in a special act, but there would at least be a human human resource advisory board for the town administration to tap into as
needed that could do some of the things that would be helpful. That may be more appropriate for sort of maybe volunteer appointed board as opposed to, you know, having real decision making authority be part of a process that it may not really
realistically line up with your personnel needs. Now, um, a couple other sort of thoughts I did have is my understanding is the way that the special act has been interpreted is that
for positions that fall under other electeds, not the select, [snorts] that the town administrators, the appointing authority or the um non-depart head employees in those
departments but that the department head in those departments would be the appointment of of those elected. So I have that correct? So uh so that could be further
clarified. It's it's a little ambiguous as far as what happens with the employees not the department head in those that work under or in the department in which you have another elected board. So to me, if that's the practice that the town wants, I do think
that that the especially that can be further clarified just to make sure that that there's no, you know, it just it can just be a little bit clearer. I think that it currently is. Um, you know, I can certainly make some
other suggestions if if if there's a desire to have the personnel bylaw um clarified. I you know, I can easily go through to some regard Um, I do think rather than keep saying that the collective
bargaining supersede, I would just exempt collective bar employees covered by a collective bargain agreement. I think it's a much cleaner way to do it because it does beg the question like, well, every time we get a new contract, we have to update those pay scales that don't really apply to them anyway. So, I
just think it's cleaner to just accept them, you know, and that way you don't have to their collective argument is going to repeal anyway. So rather than say that three or four times, just exclude them like you did to school would be a suggestion to have. So that's
a lot I know to digest. Um I didn't I was trying to give a good enough summary of a ninepage bylaw. [laughter] So you got the gist of it without you know taking two hours to every sentence. Hopefully get some of that. All right,
that is a lot. I will uh open it up to the members. I just want um [clears throat] Darren made a a few good points just to in terms of the exemption and how collective parking agreement is trumped. And just [clears throat] so the board and and anybody listening understands
that and in Milton we have um mostly all of the employee positions are covered by collective bargaining grants because we have the Milton Professional Engine Association which is kind of a catchall association that captures a wide variety of positions. So other communities where
there might be a large number of non-union employees in the professional roles of the department levels here in Milton a lot of the department heads their assistant department heads um and public positions are are also collectively bargained or part of an
association. So the number of employees that are truly covered by the press is much smaller than it might be in other communities. So just want to flag that that aspect of it. Uh because so many and like I said so many positions are coming.
>> So we have a larger number of positions that would be correct. Thank you. Questions or thoughts or points from the members? I think it's okay. >> Go ahead. Ladies first.
>> No, please. M. >> How long has this board has been no members? >> I should have gone back and done the Homer head. It's been a couple of years, I think. I know I and I met with the former moderator at some point to talk about some recruitment efforts. Um, and
um, so it's been I'd say a couple years. I can nail that down a little bit better. >> And we've been doing pretty good without it, right? >> [laughter] >> No, I just think there's more committees. It just gets to be, >> you know, you got to appoint people, you
know, they got to appoint someone, they got to meet >> in the real world, things move pretty fast. And plus, you got a human resource officer, right? >> Correct. >> Which you didn't have years ago, right? >> Correct. So, well, that position's been around for a while here in Fortun
kind of going pretty good without this committee. So during your time, you haven't had it in person. >> I believe they met a few times since I've been here. Um mostly around establishment of new positions several years ago.
That was something that Dar was kind of during the course of >> um just piggy backing up what John said. I think seems like things have been going fine. if there's very few people that this is covered by. And to John's point about moving fast, it does seem
like we need to be lighter on our feet. Everything moves a little bit faster these days. And if we have to take something to a personal board, that just might slow down or we might lose a good candidate. So I I think makes sense to kind of think about whether or not we
keep it and update our online. You know, I just want to add that um close to 90% of the town's budget is personnel and it's we have a fiduciary
responsibility to the town as a select board. Um and we oversee the town administrator. So I think it um structurally in terms of governance for the town
um keeps makes it easier to um evaluate the town administrator's performance if um he and his human resources department are primarily responsible for
making decisions on the posting of positions etc. through the chair. Thank you. The one thing I did forget to to say too is if you follow sort of the natural progression of things that in 2016 when you adopted the town
administrator act, it obviously centralized um a lot of the functions in the town administrator. You know, if that had been in place first, right? Do you think you would have then later adopted the no dial by that we currently have and I know there were some amendments made to kind of
make it more consistent but you know I'm not I'm not sure if the town administrative act existed first or you had that form of government whether you would have you know you would have done after that fact said oh we we need we need a personnel board because it it's not the way I've seen things sort of
develop in other places I think the personnel boards mostly were you know developed a long time ago and just don't work as well today, but especially where, you know, the town did go through some pretty um adopted legislation that
really centralized those functions. So, does does a personnel board make as much sense post 2016 as it did pre 2016? I guess question. >> Are you are you seeing any trends with with other towns in to to move away or
toward it? Sounds like not towards more personnel ports. Is it >> I do >> I have to say that I I'm trying to think of any towns I'm working with that have active personnel. I can't think of any that I'm currently
working with, you know, and if I'm wrong, if I'm forgetting, yeah, >> I'm forgetting like one. I'm not forgetting two. I can think of some that have since um adopted legislation that that that did not have a personal. You know, there's one town in particular
that, you know, they didn't have a personal book for years and years and years and they finally obviously tier, you know, corrected the violence and maybe special legislation to remove it. So, there wasn't sort of, you know, some confusion because it just wasn't active
at all. I will say that place they they just literally couldn't get I I know I know another town they just couldn't get people to fill the positions. It's it's a hard board to it if to do it right takes a lot of time and you know it just it's a it's a hard board to do two hours
a month. So you need to find people that really are going to put in the time and yeah it I don't see it as a common common board. Just one followup, well different question, and this might go to the topic of whether there's any value
in something like an HR advisory board if we went away from the personnel board. I I'd pose this to you and Nick or Cody. I mean, are there are there any checks and balances or other benefits to the personnel board that we might miss?
I mean I mean I know it's been vacant so maybe it's tough to say because they haven't been functioning but is there anything a top two or three things that you guys would suggest that we'd want to try to salvage from what what that sort of advisory group could bring to the
table let's say if we didn't have such a fantastic time administrators we do today you know >> I I'll go for it I guess I kind of look at it in two ways I think if we had more positions that were covered and under
the jurisdiction of the personnel plan then it might be a different answer but where there are again so many of our positions covered by agreement um in terms of advisory role you know we're we don't we're not perfect we could use and
updating to employment policies and other procedures so I think that leaning on talent in town who want to you know understand an advisory role and want to participate in can you know uh write and draft you know new post novel I think that is a place where there's expertise
you know obviously we're always to uh grab that where possible so I think that would be my perspective I don't know if you've seen that >> I was literally going to say almost the exact same answer I mean I I think there's value if you get good people obviously to to helping you know some of
those things that are harder to get to maybe your your weekly and daily um are things that people offices have. I I think where I would really shy away from is having them involved in the the personnel decisions or even setting
salaries because I just don't know if that's the most effective way. I don't think it is the most common way anymore and you know it could you gave a very good hypothetical you need to hire somebody they have two other offers. they may not wait for the personnel
board to meet to confirm the town ministry's recommendation on a change of cell weeks from now. So I I that's I think if you're going to have a board personnel board, HR advisor, it should be just it should be an advisory, you
know, to to give advice on things that maybe the administration asking for some help advice and not be a decision or even confirm. [clears throat] member >> um pertaining to the advisory board or
or any board in general. Um I in in my professional experience where I've seen more of these boards deployed, it's been more for the purpose of position control. um if there were too
many um too much hiring or too much personnel spending. Uh but we I would also just like to note that we don't particularly have that problem with this town. Um today we discussed um some of
the FY26 closeout and uh we had um some turnbacks uh from you know unfilled positions you know unbudgeted positions. So we don't uh on the town side especially don't
have um any any overspending pertaining to salaries. Um, I would say if anything, we need positions posted uh quickly and we need hires to come in
more quickly so that our uh our spending our estimates on spending are are more accurate. Um, so I would say that, you know, to attorney Klein's point that, um, we we
definitely wouldn't want to do anything that would, uh, cause a slower process. >> Thank you. >> Other thoughts? >> Okay. Um, for this conversation, what uh comes to
me is that feels not just about the personnel board, but uh time for us to maybe revisit update some of our HR practices, whether it's in light of the new town administrator act or whether we're just thinking about moving more
efficiently for our needs now and this gives us a chance to revisit that. the personnel board is a feature of the past and no longer serves us. Then let's decide if it's the advisory board or if there's another uh way of infrastructure that actually gets us to faster hiring,
more efficient, having the um support for the town administrator and the town staff is necessary, but it doesn't need to be um kind of the old way. Um particularly the idea that you surfaced there about the department heads and who they're report to where whether they're
reporting [clears throat] it to their elected boards, who's reporting it to the TA and making sure that that's explicit and known so that if we you know perhaps we've been lucky in the last few years, we haven't had any issues that have been uh elevated and caused any problems. And so now we need
to be really efficient and sort of uh head off those issues. So, um, nothing for us to take a motion on, but perhaps the next step is, uh, figuring out what we look like with without the personal support, but what
structures work best for us now and taking those next steps. >> Yeah. I mean I I think a suggestion I'm happy to obviously work on drafting the town minister's office is you know doing amended
personnel by law that would obviously improve the the um personnel board and set up you know in in the situations where it needs to be clarified suggestions or clarification
sort of a red line version. I think Nick and I can work through what things he thinks would be beneficial to the town. Process
it's escaping me the exact process but whatever the process is the right way we would follow. Also, uh this was a question. Was there was it standard practice that the moderator handled the appointments for this personnel board?
>> It's actually in your um Oh, is that standard practice in other areas? H I've seen I I I I do recall maybe seeing another personnel bylaw where the town moderator made the appointments, but I think probably just as many would be the
select board. There aren't a lot of personal personnel in there. >> Would you Can I just ask one more for action item question? Would that proposed revision, which sounds good, get to the issue we were talking about
of a really sort of a board chart structural, I think, critical [snorts] thinking we need to do that that you kind of mentioned there about, you know, sort of reporting channels and clarity around that. And I
mean, it seems like there might be some tricky issues we have to think through there potentially. Um, and I'm not sure whether that draft would get to that or I'm just thinking how do we tee that up for further discussion. I think the one
area to me that was less clear than other areas was the appointing authority for the non department heads that work in departments where there's another
I think like I would just want I would feel better for the town if that was just further clarified. There's a practice in place. I think it's a good practice. I wouldn't suggest changing it. I just would want to take another look at your special act and bylaw to
see if we can further clarify that just to avoid any questions that come up. That that's what jumped out at me, you know, in relation to what you just asked. >> All right. So you okay with next steps for >> yeah I'll get a sort of suggestions and
closing obviously you have a process for your warrant articles in your prop amendments and follow that process you know follow the process >> thank you >> right thank you
awesome thank you very much. Have a good night. Trying to stay >> somewhat cool. >> Thank you. >> Hot couple days. >> We are going to move to item five, which is discussion approval of the wild
agreement, but we're actually going to move that to our next meeting on Tuesday for public. And so with that, we'll move to item six, our discussion with our town
treasurer and collector McCarthy. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for joining us. >> I noticed me Henry is not here tonight. She's participating by Zoom, so she's missing the fun. >> Um, thank you for giving me some time.
and I know the other department heads have come in here and provided an update and um and that's what I'm about to give you from the treasure collector office. So Nick's got a couple slides here, but I just wanted to quickly touch on um a
quick overview of the department, a little bit about our org chart um and and who is where and what we do. uh some recent accomplishments we've had, some current priorities on our plate, the challenges and the opportunities that I
see happening right now, and then a little bit of a vision into the future and what I'm looking to do um moving forward. So uh the first thing I have here is a department mission statement that we came up with. Um
you know largely I'm not going to read all these slides to you if you guys can read them yourselves but um this is largely just kind of uh pointing out our fiduciary responsibilities to the financial assets of the town to um to
the collection and the cash management and the customer service roles that we have. Um and ultimately our focus being on the residents of the town and the taxpayers of the town. Um this is a little bit about who you would find if you walk into the treasur
collector's office. So um I'm the treasure collector. I've been here three three years, four months. Um, and I I think you all know prior to that I I don't have uh specific experience in the
municipal world or nor the treasure collector world. So, it's been um a a three years and four months full of learning lessons and um kind of coming up to speed on prior practices and also trying to make some improvements along
the way. Um I do have a manager on the team. uh she's the assistant treasure collector. Um she has been with us for six months. Um and and currently she hasn't been doing too much of that management role because she's been
filling in as payroll clerk. We have a vacancy in the payroll clerk position which you will also see on this or chart. Um and I'm happy to report that we have a payroll clerk starting next week. Uh so we're thrilled about that
and and our manager came back to the assistant treasurer collecture collector role that we hired her for. Um the other three three persons in the department, a deputy collector and two senior admin clerks have um various years of tenure
with the town, not just in the treasury collector office but in other other departments as well. um [snorts] some tenure and senior um you know seniority in the the senior admin roles. Um
they're currently mostly all collections focused and uh and our con our customer service fronts for any residents or taxpayers who come into the town hall. Um we're often the first place to stop
for a question. So, we're like engineering's upstairs or dog license in the town clerk's office. So, um we we we're were we're often fielding a lot of um people walking through the door and that's largely the job of of these three
individuals in addition to data processing and um and you know other administrative duties. So, the next slide has our core responsibilities on it. I um I am a treasurer collector. So other
municipalities have treasure collectors. They have a treasure or they have a collector. Um in this town we have them combined and so both of those functions sit in the office. Uh so the treasur side of the office um from that vantage point I along with the team um manage
the cash and investment accounts that we have um in in which we hold all of our financial assets. We process receipts turned over from all the town and the school departments. So, think about things like building permits. The building department and inspectional
services will bring down those receipts to us. Uh, park and wreck fees, council on aging class payments, any grant monies we get, state aid, all of that comes into my office. So, all of the money comes in that way. Um, the treasur
side also remits all town payments. Uh so we work closely with the accounting team in doing this but um we remit payments in in large part to employees on a bi-weekly basis. We we fund payroll and we process payroll uh for all town
and school employees. And then um the other form of payment is to vendors. So, uh, you know, any anywhere from the copier rentals to large, um, you know, vendor payments for construction that we
have going on. Uh, all of that comes through my office. Um, and and, you know, we work, like I said, inter interconnectedly with the accounting department and facilitating all those payments. Um, the treasurer side of our our department also issues the debt. uh
as I think you know we have um a plan to do so in the fall um and thankfully that's not on a very frequent basis because that does take a it's time intensive and there's a lot of work associated with that um again working closely with other departments in doing
so. Um and then I guess the last thing I'd say on on the treasure side is reporting. We have uh department of revenue reporting, DLS reporting. Um, you know, I will often report in ad hoc ways to to uh Nick, to the select board
finance committee. Um, and I work with the finance director on other types of reporting that's necessary. Um, so on the collector's side of the house, that's where we're taking in all of those real estate and personal property tax and motor vehicle tax payments. Um, we accept commitments and
what that means is the assessor's office will commit bills to us or commit tax amounts to us to bill. Um, we then print and mail those bills. We don't actually do the printing. We have a printer that does that and does the mailing of that.
Um, we then collect and process all the payments that we receive on those bills and um, we maintain all the account records and the receivable balances for the accounts. So think tax accounts but also think utility accounts as well
trash um and all of these responsibilities like I said we have upstream and downstream partners in departments all across the town um heavily you know connected with the accounting team the assessor's office and the water department for largely for
those collection outflows or collection flows. So, this is a this is a little laundry list of various services we provide. I thought that this would kind of be interesting information. There's a lot of bills that we send out this time. You might know this because you might get these in the mail from us
with frequency. Um, we have about 8,700 real estate tax bills that we mail twice a year. We collect payments quarterly on those. uh 280 personal property tax bills, you know, anywhere from 22 to even I think we've we've seen closer to
25,000 excise tax bills and that's for vehicles in town. And the interesting part about that is it says over seven commitments largely we we send you know the most of those tax bills go out at the beginning of the year and those are
for any vehicle that's registered in the town as of January 1st. But obviously people buy and sell cars throughout the year. Um so any new cars that people get um and own or register I should say uh they will get a prrated tax bill from us
uh throughout the year. So we have seven different kind of cycles in which we send out bills. Uh the office collects all the utility payments for the town. Um that's water, sewer, storm water once a year and trash once a year. We have lots of daily
inquiries. Um I I've done a little bit of kind of back of the envelope on this and it definitely ranges with with you know due dates of bills but I would say we get about 125 telephone calls a day. We get about 70 people walking in the
office and we have about 40 people emailing the general email account or me specifically. Um the next the next bullet point here is uh talking about MLC requests. Those are municipal lean certificates. Uh
municipal lean certificates are usually request requested when there's a property sale or transaction or a um refinancing that happens through attorneys during those processes. Uh they will request municipal lean certificate town that effectively says
taxes are paid. No no monies are owed. Um, but it's a legal document that, you know, it's a state form that I sign and then send back to them. Uh, it's a, you know, it's a process. So, it's one of the other ones on there. We sell trash stickers in the office. We, we make sure
that different stores around town have trash stickers available for our residents to purchase there. Uh, we do that bi-weekly payroll processing I talked about. So every two weeks about,00 town and school employees get um a pay direct deposit and we also
coordinate the tax payments and deductions associated with that. Weekly vendor warrant payment issuance. So those are all the payments that we send out um to vendors. This could be about I don't know 75 to 300 checks a
week or maybe five to 10 wires a week. Um we have custody of some Milton High School scholarship funds and um I just put that on there just to you know kind of make note of it. We do have one and a half million um in in
uh different fund accounts right now for uh scholarship issuances and that typically happens in late spring. Um and we also provide uh in in the office notary services for the residents of the town. Let me do other stuff too. Uh so the
next slide I have is recent accomplishments, things that we've done lately. So one is that we converted our collection system um for tax accounts and we were working off of if you looked at it you would be like this is the this
is the DOS base system of you know the 1990s the the previous system. So get off of that. Uh have not a lot of functionality. Um, and we're on a a new Windows-based software. Uh, and and it
it speaks to and coordinates with our accounting software. Um, and we are able to import payments into it, which is quite nice. Um, and so that was a big lift. Uh, and you know, we're still that was um, probably nine months ago. We're
still kind of, you know, approaching our first year end with it. And so we'll see how how it all shakes out. But um, I think we're just happy with it overall. We've done a a big tax title account collections effort. That's uh properties
that were in um had a tax lean on them and they were either in land for foreclosure or they were years and years of existing balances were kind of hanging out there and just wasn't great for the taxpayer because they were sitting out there with a 16% interest
rate slapped on it. wasn't great for us because the cash was not in um in the town's accounts. So, we've I've done a a collections effort there. We've taken in about $3 million of of um outstanding
balances in the last college 24 months. We've migrated to a single banking lock box, which is a PO box uh for people to pay their bills, which is quite nice. You send in your remittance copy of a bill, you send in a check, and it goes right to the bank. Um, we'll get an a
download from the bank of all the accounts paid, and we can pull that right up into our system, which is is helping us move towards the future here rather than kind of keying in individual payments. Uh, we've put some payment protection safeguards in place to
prevent fraud. uh mainly with check fraud. We have positive pay verification, but we also have developed, you know, electronic payment policies that are best practices. So, when we're wiring funds out of the account, we're doing that appropriately. We scan checks in our office rather than
your treasurer heading to the bank every day. Um, we've redesigned the bills to highlight and and encourage people to pay online. That's the easiest way to do it. So, for anybody listening out there, please please utilize that UNIPE site. um we've been doing some interest rate
capturing and account management. So um when interest rates are are high and and um and when we have various opportunities with various accounts, I will move funds around in order to maximize that to the best of our ability. We even now have a credit card
of swipe at our office counter. So once people come in and they say we've traditionally said it would cash your check and they're like I have a card, we now are able to accept a card in our office. Um, the weird part about the card, just to let everybody here know and everybody in the public know, is
that um, when you use a card at a local store, that store will will take on the ownership of the the fees associated with using that credit card swipe. The town obviously can't do that. So, the town actually will upcharge the the the
payment based on the the amount paid so that the fees are attached to that. So, if you come in, you buy a $35 sticker, you might have to pay an extra $150 a piece, but that's what that is. Um, next slide has our current priorities. So,
the things I'm working on right now, we're finalizing the fiscal year 26 year end. I think you're going to talk more about that in a bit. Um, and from my vantage point, that's just ensuring all cash is reported, bank accounts are reconciled. We're onboarding that new payroll clerk. Can't wait for her to
start next week. Uh, we're assuming some of the DPW billing and collection responsibilities. So, I'm working on transitioning that up to my office. We're migrating the utility billing software off of that old DOS product onto that new um cool Windowsbased
product. Uh, and it's going to be all kind of under the same umbrella of the current collection system. So, we have sort of one software provider helping us with this. Uh, I'm working with other departments in town to select and implement a new payroll HR software product. Um, I think
Amy spoke a little bit about that when she came and spoke to you a few weeks ago, but that's uh that's at the top of many of our lists. Um, and then of course we have the fall debt issue that's coming up. And and I just want to spend a little bit of time next on um some challenges and opportunities that
we see in the department right now. So, under the challenges column, I'd say staffing and recruitment. Um, I found the prior uh discussion item very interesting. Um, and and let me just say from a staffing and recruitment perspective over the three years I've
been here, we've had some vacancies on on in my office and and in you know, tangential offices around town. Um and it's difficult to recruit people to come in to the roles that we have and under
the positions that we have. So again my prior experience is all in the private sector and that was a different beast in its entirety. I work often with our town administrator on and and our HR director on talking about kind of how we can make these positions um you know more
marketable and more attractive to the right uh to the right people. Um and we're going to continue to have to do that as we march down the future here and as we see um future vacancies in in
our you know finance team departments. So, it's something I'm It's challenging, but uh we're working through it. We're we're doing okay. And um you know, like I said, we come out the other side with a payroll next week. So, I'm excited about that. Uh we have technology
upgrades and needs. I've talked about those already. Um those continue to be challenges and and anytime you onboard something, it's, you know, there's bugs and there's things to figure out as you're doing that. So, it's it's it's never a smooth path, but we've um we've
made some good progress thus far. Uh I would say that we've got lots of manually intensive work still. Um you know, there's deposit slips that still exist in my office. There's like, you know, uh carbon copies of things. Um we
keep a lot of paper. That's my last one here. There's paper everywhere. I'm just going to kind of work on thinking about how we can reduce that. I we have a archive um room down in uh the lower
floor of the town hall that has a lot of documents that need to be retained and archived. But it's just an insane volume of paper that's down there. So, uh we need to think about that. We need to think about that as a collectively as a town, but I also need to think about
that as my department, right? We there's a lot of things regarding tax records and payroll records that we need to retain and we need to think about a way to do that so it's not overwhelming. Um we but all this like you know brings about opportunities. We can streamline
some workflows as we're doing this. We can utilize some technology and and something I'd like to focus on is just public facing enhancements. Lots of people come in with lots of different suggestions at all times or email or or call us with suggestions and um and I
really do welcome them. You know, I often will they'll they will, you know, there will be themes there and we'll try to implement those as best we can and I I want to make sure that we're doing that, you know, always with a focus on making it easier for residents and
taxpayers. So, looking ahead, I just um on my radar screen, I would say my 12-month radar screen here, um continue to maximize collections and and our revenue with
notices and with demands. Um once we get that new payroll system up and running, I'm really looking forward to employee selfservice for payroll and benefits. Um, it would be something akin to kind of, you know, changing your direct deposit information yourself, changing
your withholding rates yourself, and not having somebody to key it. May review that and oftentimes needs to be keyed in a couple different places also elsewhere. Um, the third bullet here is bill presentment for residents. So, that is where, you know, the actual bill that
you receive in the mail would be available to you online. So, you'd see the bill rather than just the amount, you know, is owed, which I think would be very helpful. And you know, when people are requesting payment histories, if you're preparing your taxes in March,
um, and you're trying to go back to the last calendar year, it's you get a lot of inquiries at that time frame. Hey, how many how much did I pay in taxes last year? If we were able to present bills and make them available to our residents online, that that would be
helpful. Uh, I want to do specifically some cash flow planning. I've talked to Nick about this um a lot that I want to be thoughtful about. I I should say I want to do more of it. I do it on a at a very high level now, but I think the
town could really benefit from um understanding what we have from cash balances and understanding where we when we will need to um potentially, you know, do short-term borrowings to cover us through a long-term debt issuance or
or if we have enough funds to get us through, you know, a certain period of time with some visibility into interest rates as well. and really trying to maximize the amount of money we can make and and hold at one point in time. Uh so capture interest rate opportunities is
is always up there. And then you know just finally from an employee standpoint I'd love to cross train throughout the department make sure that time offs you know time away from the desk is covered um and and help to develop skills
through training. the the role that I have has a great um you know peer association Massachusetts collector treasure association has lots of classes and lots of has a treasure school I'm going to go to in a couple weeks um just
what you want to do in the middle of August uh so there's lots of learning opportunities and I'd love to like promulgate that throughout the department and and ensure that you know that everybody is well trained and well
versed on new master laws or you know new industry guidance. Okay, that was a lot. What can I answer for you? Questions and discussion. >> How can I help? >> Nick, anything you want to add? Any color?
>> Nope. uh very grateful for the work uh that Joanna does and grateful that she called that random day three years ago to say what is the role of the treasurer and I might be interested in potentially running for that office. So, um, no, we're the town's unfortunate fortunate.
So, that's all. >> Thank you. And Hagerty, hold on. As my second, you're you're in first with your hand up. >> Thank you. Um, so Joanna, I really just want to thank you for all the work that you've done over the past three years to
professionalize um the office. Um, it looks easy when you do it because you've just got so much um, experience and leadership and accounting um, in the
private sector even though you you're new to the public sector. It feels like you've been here forever. Um, and I just looking at the slides and I I kind of knew this, but I was really just
struck, you know, the amount of transactions that occur with such a small team. It is breathtaking. Um so um thank you and we're lucky to have you and your team and you know what just let
us know how we can continue to support you in your efforts to make um this vital function more efficient. Um, and I also would state that over
working with you all in the budget over the past year, uh, it is, you know, the collector treasurer's office, um, is one of the unsung heroes of of the budgeting efforts. I mean, the
what what you've what you've been able to put together through, you know, the investments and being able to collect has really helped the town uh navigate through some tight times and and will
continue to get us there into the future as we as we continue to weather uh fiscal pressures. So, um thank you and that's that's all for me. Miss M. McCarthy, your team does a great
job. I don't know where you're going to fit the extra employee. >> No, I know. We're going to create bunk beds or something. [snorts] >> But when Mrs. Dexter was here, there was talk of maybe looking into a payroll company. Is that proceeding at all?
>> So, what what we're doing, and we're working with Cody, our assistant town administrator, on this. for putting together a request for a proposal for a a payroll software provider. Um, so it wouldn't be fully outsourcing payroll. I
don't I I don't think that that would work. I I don't think we're necessarily against it, but I do think that having a a system that is um supported, right? like payroll software
right now is not technically supported. Um it's sun setting so we don't have a lot of support technically behind the scenes from that. Uh I think um I think having the software with have increased functionality so it doesn't require as
much like manual input but it can be more systematized and that it also can connect into something that has an you know a front-facing portal would be leaps and bounds. So, um, I don't mean to kind of skirt the question, but I
think that like what we're looking for right now is a product that will assist the efforts of the payroll and HR administration. Um, and I think that that would be enough. Um, you know, I'm not sure that the the the
price point would get the most bang for our buck if we went any further than that. >> Thank you. I enjoy I enjoy going to your office. They're very nice ladies and I like paying uh taxes. The bank's not paying them no more. >> So, I enjoy it. So, u
>> that's often a trick when people when that happens for people and it's great. We say, "Congratulations, now you're going to forget to pay your real estate taxes." >> Make sure it's way ahead of time. >> That's great. >> The only thing is like I'll have 24 excise tax bills.
>> Oh, well, you have a lot of me. >> I know. I know. I know. But is there any way just putting all the bills in one envelope >> cuz there's 24 then my family's got three vehicles. There's like 27 >> get a lot in the mail. >> No, I mean save it will probably be a heavy postage cost.
>> Yeah, I think we're I I will look into that. But I do think we're required to mail them all individually. >> All right. Um but something I am sort of thinking out there and I'm going to do some math on this in the next collection cycle is well does everybody need a return envelope? Some people use them,
some people don't need I bring them back to you. >> Yes. So, we often get them back in the office. So, that will be one. >> But you have a great staff and a great office. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Just thanks for the presentation. I knew
it would be great. It was exceeded. >> Thank you. And thanks for all that you do. >> Um just a a question on the the looking ahead slide. I mean the the the type of question I was going to ask her it was about you know financial opportunities
particularly around collection and and you sort of touched on it with one or two items on there not just about collection but just creative revenue or collection and I was just wondering if you'd say a line or two about when you
you talked about maximizing collections and then separately about um you capitalize on interest rate opportunities like if you could speak to sort of like the magnitude of the opportunities there. >> Yeah, probably not, you know, enough to
avoid future overrides, [laughter] but um but and and my friends on the select board finance committee know this. I'm very hesitant to ever, you know, uh budget or in increase a budget on a interest line
like I I want to continue to be very conservative on that because we just don't have the visibility into future interest rate environments, right? Um our investment policy for the town restricts
my ability to, you know, [snorts] invest in market rate securities in in many respects. So, um, so what we're really talking about here is just utilizing CDE rates, utilizing
government banked products, um, government money markets, uh, you know, uh, negotiated agreements with banks, particularly a bank where we have a payment lock box.
if they're if we keep a minimum balance in that lock box, they'll increase the rate on the money market that's attached to it where I can transfer funds, that kind of stuff. Um, but it does add up. I mean, I think we'll talk a little in a little bit about the fiscal year 26 number and you'll see that there's we
came in well over budget, which is great. um separately on the collection side, uh we have some abilities for folks who don't pay their bills in town to um to ensure that they ultimately do
get paid. So, uh if you if you do not pay your water, sewer, storm water, or trash bills in town, uh they will be leaned over. It's kind of a curve. People get scared of the noun word of that, but the the lean
those amounts, those balances overdue will be leaned over into your real estate tax bill the following fiscal year. So, um they will roll onto your tax bill and ultimately the real estate tax bill must be paid. If you do not pay your real estate tax bill, the town can
put a tax lean on your property. Um and that's the protection that the town has to make sure that we collect those funds, right? So, that's why revenue collection isn't always going to be straightforward. There are people that forget to make a payment or there are people that are delinquent in payments
and um you know acknowledging you know we try to do our best to remind people to say like look this is not a fun interest rate. You don't want to be sitting out there with this balance. When you pay we're going to pay off your um your uh most overdue amounts owed to
the town. So that we're you know it's in your best interest if we do that. Um and and notices and demands are things that we can do where we're continually prompting taxpayers and reminding them that they have balances. So oftentimes, you know, we do mail twice a year. You
guys know this. Um we but we collect taxes on a quarterly basis. There are oftentimes people who might forget that second second coupon payment. Um so for instance, we just mailed your your tax bills due the beginning of August and the beginning of November. And people
often pay the one in August and maybe put that bill aside and forget it in November. And they say, "Why didn't you email me?" Well, why didn't you tell me? And I we can't like we just because you missed a payment, we're not going to notify you um each and every time. So, there's interest on them that until they
get their next bill. Um I just want to think about ways that we can do reminders. I was traveling through my hometown during the um prior tax billing season and I saw like one of those flashing light signs, reminder, taxes
are due. That's such a great idea. Um so things like that I think could be helpful. More notices and and things like Yeah. But uh I do think that that to the extent that
um we can capture those interest rate opportunities and continue to do so will be helpful in um and and cash flow planning connected with that, right? to ensure that we're we're making sure that the we're analyzing the interest rate
that we can earn on that money versus the rate that we pay in debt service, right? Um and I just want to be as thoughtful about that um from a fiduciary standpoint moving forward as we're doing some budgeting. So, I think that helps.
>> Thank you so much for watching every penny that gets used by our town. I I I appreciate these sort of creative ways that you're doing that too, especially with the the interest the interest rate piece that you guys have all discussed. Um, if you had a magic wand, what would
you kind of fix immediately? >> What would I fix? Um, Nick's scared right now. Um, >> find some money to get a better air conditioner for him. >> I like this stairs. I'm fine with this.
Um, it's blowing right on me. [laughter] Uh, I would fix I would I would, you know, if I had a magic wand, I would want everybody to pay their bill online. That's much easier. and um and it requires much less
effort on everybody's part at the town um in order to process those payments and they go right into an account that makes a lot of money for the town and um and I I mean I you know there's other
things that I think um make sense but [clears throat] I I I think yeah I guess it's that I guess it's that I want you. That's okay. Thank you. Everybody in town, everybody listen.
Um yeah, but there's I I I do think um there's just unique challenges with cash, right? And and we need to be from equity perspective, we need to be willing and able to accept cash payments. We need to be a able to accept
accept money orders and checks and people walking in people driving up to our dropbox and dropping it up. Um so we want to be as nimble as possible. Um you know something I'm thinking about is this silly penny like you know the the
US Treasury doing it with pennies. what the heck are we going to do with, you know, change in the office like when there's pennies? Um, and when tax bills are when you have to pay $1,000 23, like how are we going to make that happen? So, if you know, I think there's little
nuances of things to figure out, but yeah, I payments and streamlining that would be very helpful. >> Thank you, Joanna. I don't really have much to add. The questions I was going to ask have kind of been surfaced throughout tax careers as well as
investment income. But I think um I want to say thank you for the work you've done the last three years. It's been a big part of our fiscal stability. Um cannot downplay how smart you've been in using markets and the investment
rates to allow us to have more revenue in a time when that comes up. always about how can we generate more revenue for the town. We'll see later when we discuss our general fund revenue a lot of those overages are due to your
ability um to work in the best possible way for the time. And so um folks may not have a lot of insight into the work that you're doing daytoday or the impact that you have but it cannot be overstated how important you've been in your time. So >> thank you very much.
>> Thank you. Thanks for giving me the time. I appreciate it. and I'll stick around if you have any questions as you guys >> sure so when the so the website goes down and I can't pay >> you just give us a call >> very helpful >> yeah um no I appreciate it
>> thank you >> thank you >> all right item seven fiscal 2026 closeout >> uh sure thank do. Uh so I will share a couple things and just talk through our preliminary results for revenue. Um how
we closed the books up on the expense side and a couple of action items related to appropriations, transfers and fun expenditure limit. Um so we shared this update both with the committee last night. Um Amy and [clears throat] I
attended their meeting last night and we met the finance committee this morning. Um so in terms of revenue results, this is still preliminary as we're working to close up books, but um as you can see here, we have projected about $145
million in revenue. And through um the end of fiscal 26, which ended on June 30th, we projected $149.5 million, so approximately 4.2 million over budget. A couple of the places where we were significantly over budget were motor
vehicle excise tax, which where we've seen um higher than kind of the five to sevenyear historic which will tell you we would expect to land and we did increase the mortgage excess tax forecast for fiscal 27 are all coming down to $5 million. Um so I've captured
a bit of that in our planning 627. Uh penalties and interest were $678,000 over budget as the chair cl just noted. Um largely due to continued work on collections on longer outstanding tax
accounts tax bills. So the revenue from real estate taxes would be reported on the real estate property tax line but any penalties and interest that was charged by the town on that tax reflected helen interest line. Um so as those
longer outstanding um tax title issues are closed out we wouldn't expect to generate as much revenue here in future years. Uh the other one I'll flag is U licenses and permits which is largely building permit uh fee revenue. Um you know
$950,000 over budget. Uh I'll just note that there are three permits that contributed close to $780,000. So three large permits for larger projects. Um significantly soon our permit feed over budget. Uh it just goes
to show um that again this is not necessarily it's not the onetime revenue because we've had a couple of busy years in the building department but it's also not necessary revenue that we could count on bringing in $2.4 million in revenue building permits in fiscal 29 as
an example um since these larger projects permitted [snorts] in this year we would expect to potentially issue building permits for the memory care project on Highland. um that building permit application is in and 648 652 KN is 116 unit project that
um potentially could um have received approvals to proceed this year. So that might be another place would be a large permit fee. Uh there's a building permit for the 40B on access road that they've already got a
partial permit but haven't so there are a couple of larger ones with fiscal 27 but that would wrap the um large projects that have been regulatory wise the last couple years. Um and so our longerterm outlook for a building permit
uh like it would be as high. And then lastly, again just kind of building off the conversation we just had um investment income which is really interesting come on the town's earnings and $183,000 over budget um is again that's it's not necessarily been one
time because we've been in receiving strong returns on our interest rates in the last couple of years. However, again if you know the broader economic conditions change that position back
to keeping those revenue investments relative. Um so again bottom line is about $4.2 million above what had been budgeted in fiscal 26 subject to have continued close out on the revenue side
>> I can um go through the expense side >> uh so we have um what we'll talk about next is is First um transfers related to stone and ice deficit to um close out our deficit in stone ice and then a
description of the broader appropriations transfers for the various departments of budgets and all this information is in a separate packet. Uh the reserve fund is um appropriated as part of the operating budget on an annual basis. It's held by the warrant committee. Um transfers out of subject
to the committee I should say. Warren Committee is approved transfers out of the reserve fund of the entire reserve fund as displayed on the screen. $277,000 went to the snow and ice deficit DW $500 was for the audit budget just in this calculation of what the fee
was going to be and then similar in this calculation on the retirement system appropriations for so the entire reserve fund has been transferred out of the reserve fund into other countries for the rest of the ice deficit. This is
a summary that just shows for fiscal 26 we appropriated $160,000 but spent 1.65 million on snow operations salts um contractors etc. Um we're removing a deficit within
the DPW budget of $1.49 9 million and the transfers down below demonstrate how that u deficit was addressed uh through the or is proposed I should say proposed to be addressed through additional transfers. So the first one is the reserve fund $277,000
that we just described. The second is the DPW budget itself had savings and other accounts that weren't the snow account. Um throughout the year they were I would say um average between six to seven um vacancies and that my operational staff Our town engineer
position was also vacant for just for six months. So there were um vacancies within the department that contributed to savings on our overall budget as well as overspending in other accounts um and saw waste um and some of the general expense lines. They did not spend all
the money elsewhere. So the DW budget was able to absorb some of that impacted spellings. And then uh four additional transfers from uh proposed from departments to DPW select board again in our office with vacancies in the
planning director position, assistant planning director position, the assistant town administrator position uh for much of the fiscal year. So we got to submit savings within our budget. that was able to be proposed some transportation TPW legal budget similar
and just spent legal so that TPW our general insurance line our premiums were just lower than we had expected it to be. Um, and this is a budget account for the current new fiscal year where we have to drop that budget uh year over
year just to to reset it up to adjust to lower the expected premiums particularly around compensation. Then lastly, we had $282,000 in debt service account that we did not spend due to a change in um our game plan
around where we're going to issue long-term debt. That is coming up later this year. transition. So overall the stone ice deficit has been absorbed by these transfers that we propose that are concluding each other for approval. Um
despite you know working to absorb this um deficit we also have another $1.6 to$1.8 million in other department budgets that were also spent. So um we have had you know um
a a good year in the sense that we have still have significant turnbacks throughout the town budget beyond um just these ones we identified they're largely due to vacancies in the police department vacancies in the fire department. Um and then because we did not settle agreements there's $590,000
appropriated for payments related to party agreements. Since we didn't settle any of it all of that goes on schedule. So that contributes to an addition to that. Um so that's snow and ice in the reserve fund. And then again I had passed out and included uh other
appropriations transfers. Um these appropriations transfers that are listed and included in the packet are moving money from within departmental budgets. So we're constrained to the budget that's supported by town for every line
that's supported by town. So to move money from salaries and wages to general expenses requires an appropriations transfer approved by the committee and select board the balance of these transfers already within departmental budgets just moving from one line to another. U happy to take any questions
if there are any specific ones but otherwise that's uh where the close out stands for fiscal 26. Um and then lastly, the other um request we're making is related to increasing revolving fund expenditure limits.
And as included in the packet, we have our revolving fund for East Library. Um and they're they're having issues with their sewer line. Um they contracted with uh contracted to replace the sewer line. Uh we had issues locating the
sewer line. uh ran into rock as well and became pretty intensive project. But at the end of the day, we replaced the sewer line entirely. While the trench was open, we replaced the water line. It just became a much more expensive project. So it ended up being $50,000
over two days of work. Uh the Milton Art Center paid $12,000 of that expense and the building in the revolving fund paid the rest of the expense $38,000 against their annual spending limit of 25,000.
So the revolving fund this after these expenditures has a year balance of $127,000. I'll just note that all these payments from the building go into this revolving planet. It's explicitly set up for maintaining the building, making repairs to the building. Um, so it's a
it's a big expense. It was a big project that took place um early last fall. However, now we got, [snorts] you know, a new model should last as long as most of us are around. and um the the money that we use to pay for it
is meant to make improvements and investments in the infrastructure. Uh so that's the appropriations transfer the reserve fund. I can take any questions. Um we talked about this this morning at the
finance uh committee meeting. So thinking that I have seen a lot of this, but any questions from the board on any of the numbers, the appropriations transfers? >> This might be off topic a little bit, but can you remind me what we budgeted
for snow and ice in FY27? >> We increased the appropriation fiscal 27 budget is budget at $250,000. It's a $90,000 increase, which is the first increase in um many, many years, but it's still kind of well below where cold
winter will land us, but it's an increase. If there are no other questions, I will accept a motion on the appropriation transfers and the expenditure limit for my U move to approve the appropriation
transfers as submitted by the finance director and approve FY2026 expenditure limit for the East Milton Library revolving fund of $38,000. >> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. Roll call votes.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. Thank you. Okay, we'll move to item nine, the select board goals and objectives. Um, I
will just surface this right now for uh any discussions on points we'd like to have added or anything we saw in what was shared that we would like to have changed and then have it for approval um in our next meeting Tuesday. So, any
points We'll still have another few days for anyone to sort of review and ask questions and then our very next meeting for approval. >> Thank you. We'll now move to item 10, library college acquisition and review.
Maybe best for us to start here. Mr. Lo, any updates you'd like to share um since our last conversation? Uh just a few uh points that we've communicated with the um we've had a conversation with President Curry
College. Uh been in touch with the broker and the attorney collaborate um continuing to reiterate reiterate the town's interest the town's commitment to making an offer. Um they've said that they're looking for office by the end of the month. um are I've checked in with
the land vest, the firm that's conducting the appraisal of library. They said they expect to deliver the appraisal between July 24th and July 28th. Um so we'll have that to consider prior to making offer. I'll note that we have conveyed that if you know library
receives an offer it's interesting to offer that stand to be at the table and their understanding of our time is interested. uh the school building committee has meeting on Monday, July
20th to pick [snorts] up the conversation around um the site and the building in terms of its how it lends itself to the school project. Um and so you know July 20th will be their next discussion with the architect and the
team around around the school project concept and we'll be sure to share that information as we get it as well. if those continenting updates on the appraisal in progress expected to deliver later this month, the school
building work is continual land vest being expected at the end of the month, we may need to have a special meeting for ourselves the last week of July for us to be there with you to discuss our So step forward too that being uh the last week where we think
about making our office happen in the subsequent weeks. Uh so I think hopefully we'll get it before 30th we're leaving the country that happens before then. Uh Monday the architects are going to the school
building committee and I believe Tuesday they'll be they'll be presented to the school committee. So we will have at least hopefully by the end of the month our um appraisal school buildings plan presented to both of those bodies and give us a much better idea of how we can
move forward with this project with LA. Um I will just reiterate what Miss Milano said. uh we have made it expressly um clear to the folks who have that we are very interested in the property and
we want every opportunity for the so we made you know it's very clear about it we like to stay uh else kind of comes with thoughts from the numbers >> just on my understanding of the school
building committee dates. I think it I I'm just raising it in case there's any, you know, acceleration we want to impress, but I'm not sure there is. Um based on the the meeting on the what was
the last meeting on the 6th with the architect and the school building committee they overviewed sort of the timeline the deliverables and that there's a meeting on the 20th for the school building committee. So this upcoming Monday where there's going to
be um a draft report surface of school building committee without I think pricing attached to it yet. I think around that time it's going out to the pricing estimator too. The architect indicated a final report with pricing to
the school building committee um the week of the 27th. So and and then they were planning on a presentation to the select board on August 3rd. So it's probably the best we can do, but
hopefully we can get our hands on that report. um last week in July and just kind of impress on the timing. I I mean I think we're trying to be nimble either way, you know, no matter what we have from the school building committee at that point, but you know, it just would
be a shame if it like came two days after we have to make the call. So, you know, maybe Nick, we can try to just kind of press a couple days this way or that on the timing of all that. >> Yeah.
I think that that time to remind you that that we're meeting on the fourth. >> Yes, we we had we had already planned on meeting on the fourth. just a question of adding a meeting the 29th and the 28th and the
30th as well once the appraisal is back and going and at the same time we will follow up with the broker just to provide them an update
expectations if they're you know they're okay with a week later and a half later I guess they've been Um, good partners. >> Other thoughts? >> I I um, you know, like objective A is to
just do everything we need to do to put ourselves in the position to handle the next the rest of the month properly. Um, I think we are, um, thinking past that. It's kind of a point
I've been making in prior meetings, but I would be in favor of, you know, continuing to plan beyond that if things go our way with the bid. Um, I'm thinking in terms of almost like a
2.0 0 of the the roadmap document we've been working on today which kind of set forth um you know what the school committee would be doing what the school building committee would be doing what the select board would be doing um I
think you know there's probably we might be coming up on kind of an need to kind of enhance that or update that a little bit to kind of take us through just so everyone's kind of clear on continuing to you move. I'll give you two examples.
And you know, I don't know if they end up in if we do a 2.0 if if this all needs to be in there. But um starting with the school analysis, you know, we we heard from the superintendent
and um select school committee chair last meeting that there's a few items from their deliverable that they need more time on. And it makes sense to me that they do. You know, it was sort of the whole qualitative feedback to us
around, you know, how this option really compares to MSBA option. Um, you know, once they kind of see the deliverable and pricing and all that. I just want to kind of keep that rolling so that we we know kind of I have no doubt they'll be
on top of that but I think it helps just from a coordination and transparency transparency perspective like so we know okay that work will continue is it in August September I don't know um and then I I I again we we've been over this
a little bit but I think we could start to map out what we were talking about with the planning board last week or excuse me last meeting around that other use diligence. Um, I think it could make sense to think
about where do you want to be with that by October town meeting? I don't expect it to be done, but do you do you want to start to map that out? Um, I I just I think there could be value in just keeping moving with some of the planning
while we are, you know, I I think time will be of the essence in sort of each phase here. I think if if we're fortunate enough for um you know our bid to be accepted contingently then that's going to be another tight window you know between then and town meeting. I think I think
October sadly we'll kind of sneak up. So I I would be in forward just trying to kind of keep you know evolving that roadmap document and I'd be happy to help in any way of that but just wanted to put that out there from like a planning perspective. What are
you thinking about seeing on road map? >> Um, off the top of my head, I wouldn't I probably wouldn't add too much to the opt, you know, what we were referring to last meeting in the option
A scenario other than just clarifying the understanding of like when those other school committee deliverables will be coming back to us. Um, so I might just try to, you know, almost us speaking to the school committee to each
other about aligning on expectations of when that sort of critical work will be happening. Um, I would think about enhancing the plan B planning to
think about. So, so if if we go down the path where we were talking with the planning board last meeting, you know, I think it was um you know, might have been a combination of Shawn and Cheryl who who said that
um they would probably, you know, the town would probably need to leverage an outside consultant to really work up, you know, a framework around potential, you know, use options if it weren't a So, [clears throat] I might I would be
in favor of scoping out almost, you know, identifying sort of who's going to be working on that. Who do we have sort of between the boards or staff
to sort of be thinking about that, pursuing that? I wouldn't suggest hiring a consultant until we or you know, until we know we want to spend the money. i.e. get the property you know or you know bids accepted but
you know I think the document could say for example spend August and September doing X moving that along so that there's a little framework around that thinking to kind of guide the town meeting discussion. Um, I think it's a
delicate balance of like distracting from focusing on the school effort and, you know, making sure our bid goes in smoothly. But I think we probably want to utilize, you know, week to week here. Just one more like I I I'm almost
envisioning like just as an example to be refined like a task force with a few select board members and a few planning board members and the town administrator and town planner to um almost you know start
you know thinking through that option sharing expertise perhaps that's the group that oversees the consult if we bring one in to sort of be reporting into us. Um, and you know, we were talking a little bit last meeting
about if someone else gets the property, we want to sort of be nimble to react to that, too. And and that might position you to already kind of have the room of experts to be um there to think about that, too.
Um, so I guess part of it is just having that right forum available for the right people to keep talking about this. Um, I'm on the side of trying to like structure that a little bit, but if you guys think, you know, that can just happen more organically outside of that
structure, you know, open to that, too. But that's sort of the best I could kind of think about how to move it along. And I'll just say I think the um the options outside of the school are
just a much longer process. Whereas if we are working with the schools and school building committee which is what I think we're trying to find in the next two months right it's our bid at the end of the month and all the reports that
are coming in so that we have more information. that being our plan A and that coming in if if and when those items come back from the architect for school building from our um appraisal and all the other
pieces and we say yes this is the idea that we should go ahead I think it lessens the need for the planning in that we are focused on school's work we're going we're going to have to go to meeting in sections anyway. Whereas the fall town meeting is
just for the appet. I'm trying to think of when it would trigger us having a separate body that's working on a different idea. Not not and I'm not trying to say that it's a it's a bad idea. It's like when would we
pull that group together as we're trying to kind of figure out the school idea as well as with purchase. Now, if we get the stuff back from the schools and it doesn't seem like it's going to work, then I think that automatically triggers us thinking about that that's that
secondary piece. So, maybe it's just at the end of the month when we go through some of these reports, we start [clears throat] thinking about is this really feasible? because right now I think we're still operating a little bit in the dark in terms of we don't know what stuff's going to cost. We don't know um the designs you know schools are
working in best efforts but what the report comes back and says it's not exactly how we thought it would be and I think I think the training points where we would then say okay let's let's start with secondary plan so maybe that's something for us to get
into July maybe on August 4th meeting we have more information. >> I mean, I I think that's fair. You know, a couple weeks here and there. Um, I think we, you know,
don't need to exhaust a before starting B. But I think we will have a few more data points later this month to help us probably think about the scope of B for sure. You know, I'm I'm not expecting that based
on the enthusiasm of the architects to be, you know, a deal a dead on arrival kind of report back, but you know, who knows once we start attaching pricing to it. All right. Other thoughts from the members. >> All right. Let's move to item 11,
special election state ballot questions, which I think is less important to us now except for I believe the fire station building committee is still working towards their goals, but we've already kind of seem to be moving towards
special uh election board. So if things go well that way, >> I don't have anything to add at this time. I just will continue to track this for the next two meetings in case the board decides to add a question to the November ballot. And again, that
deadline is to have that delivered to the Secretary of State's office in hard copy by the end of the day on August. So we have a firm deadline to put it down. >> Great. Let's go to it and 12 discussion approval of potential articles. Mr.
Long, just walk us through any updates on the articles. >> Uh yes, a lot of these are um in draft form. So we'll have a few more drafts up for a potential approval at the meeting uh next week. The war committee
certainly antsy to get articles sooner rather than later as their timeline to turn around recommendations and comments um really lands them in the first or second week of December done with their work. Um so we're looking at a very truncated timeline as we move towards
our school meeting. Um I'll just note that of the articles on the list a library college acquisition appropriation and c building committee appropriation are kind of um tied together and we're going to acquire library and we need money to study it
you know that an article for that and we potentially need an article for building committee so uh that will be kind of up in the air for a while as the chair mentioned the fire station building committee is anticipating the 21st of July or 28th of July um to map out um
where they'll be um in times for October um and kind of their game plan on on their timing be for requesting the appropriation and being ready for to make that request. The appropriations for water man replacements is the DPW engineering project. We're just working
through the financing of that uh a little bit more detail. So we should we'll be prepared to speak to that directly on next Tuesday. short-term rentals. Uh the planning board met and discussed it at their meeting last week. They continued to work on it. Another draft was just
distributed by the planning director um earlier this evening um for that com that starts to flag me comments for work internally. So we're continuing to work on that. Um again just worried generally
about some of these timelines um to get complete articles to so that their next meeting would be 23rd. So, um, we'll have something or not by August 4th, which I would I would do
really as kind of hard to get any significant articles to and then uh the two after that, the local option room occupancy and the community pack are tied to a short-term rental. So, those are a
little bit more straightforward and we're not moving forward right now. We have some finance housekeeping related surplus bond proceeds that we'll present next Tuesday. And then lastly, not on the list, the community preservation committee is potentially
going to submit an article related to um the Tucker playground project which has been under progress. um their meeting on July 20th to consider bringing a project out of their normal scheduled routine um to the fall town meeting um to try to
tee that project up for as much construction next summer as possible and then if moving forward the CBC has also been asked to make an appropriation to the Apple project for the historical um
components of that project. Then lastly, we have a Warren article from the local historic district study committee which we talked about in our last meeting and I'll be working with the chair of that committee to have one of our to talk about that article and
where it stands in our quest. So that's uh status on each of those. um more clarity and more um complete drafts by next Tuesday and then I would do August 4th as our um is our hard
deadline to get all the >> um so no motions for us on this. Uh we'll have drafts for next Tuesday's meeting and motions move forward next Tuesday. Questions.
Seeing none, move to item 13. License agreement coastal ambulance for use of the garage and landed in DPWR for temporary ambulance storage and crew quarters. Um believe this is related to uh Coastal um having to leave their
current residents under steal and ride and then leasing with us until September 30th. Then which point we'll figure out what happens closer from that point. But any thoughts or questions from the members? Is there anything you'd like to add? Mr.
>> Uh no. The license agreement has been updated with a a monthly payment of $7,300 for the short-term duration that supposed to be down there. They got their trailer on there now. They have been um located at W. Um so they have
been um their lease has been ended at their prior location. Uh they're continuing to search for a new long-term option in Milton. uh we are willing to license some space with the approval of the DPW director who's got involved um
from the get-go that this does not affect their operations. Where it would affect operations is once we get into the winter months, which is the reason for the September 30th deadline on the license agreement. However, he's indicated that probably keeping them there till October is possible. So, we
may look to extend it, but um right now we're, you know, we're thinking keeping the September 30th date from now. look to extend it potentially to October 31st and assist them in their continued search around town. Um, and as I mentioned to the board, they were attendees at the walkthrough at the fire
station that was held. >> Where's the options in town? >> They are striking out and they've been for a while. Yes. So, town facilities, if if there's town
facilities or if there is other land in [snorts] town that um we might be willing to put up, that's that's kind of where they they've returned to after exploring a lot of different or trying to explore different private options. Um they expanded a lot in recent years and
they're landed in communities that have a lot more options for them. It's just tough. I just don't see options other than firehouse, but there's no room there for them for the duration.
>> I mean, we're going to play this kind of we're doing this for a couple months. See how it goes. See how everybody plays along together and if it works out. There's always the option to continue to extend it um if it's not interrupting. If there's no interruption to uh
operations, generally speaking, we certainly would want them more centrally located in town than even where they were before or at the station if they end up being on that on that site. Um so in this general site is is a good place to be. So we'll have
to see how this >> Megan Hagerty. >> Just real quick question. What's what are the um what are the use the minimum requirements for the space that they need?
>> Uh they do need um the ambulances under the under the state agency OEMS to they do need to be gared. So they need physical shelter for the ambulances themselves and then they need crew quarters for four employees who work
24-hour shifts. >> Okay. >> Touch with coal. Let's move to item 14. motion. I'm sorry. That's I'll take a motion to approve. >> Move to approve license agreement with postal ambulance for use of a garage and
land in DPFW yard for temporary ambulance storage and crew quarters until September 30th, 2026 and authorize the town administrator to extend the license agreement with the approval of the Department of Public Works. >> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. Member Hagerty.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. and myself. >> Move to item 14, discussion approval with the pilot payment from Curry College. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Curry College submitted a pilot payment
earlier this year, $110,000 with their past payments. Um, and so, as always, we appreciate that contribution to the town. We appreciate their continued partnerships. Curry thoughts, questions?
If not, I'll take a motion >> move to approve the pilot payment from Curry College. >> Second. >> Motion made seconded. Member Hagerty. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dresco. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Myself. Yes. Okay. We'll bring you to the pilot paper from the academy sends us a nice envelope. >> Uh, yes. Milton County submitted a letter of trans middle which I include in the package that shows um what their payments were and contributions were to
the town general fund as well as a few other departments and their [snorts] historical. So they contributed $245,000 as a pilot payments of the general fund as well as $12,500 to police and fire each and the wild $7,500 to the library
$500. of annual contributions in fiscal 26 to $285,000 which is a $10,000 increase over the prior year. Um, you know, I'll just note that Heidi Van Brown, who has been a CFO at Milton Academy for at least as long
as I've been in Milton um isn't too big on um so we will need to do contact forward to make sure that uh they stay on their radar to these um has been talked about the last couple
years. >> Make a motion to approve. Oh, I'm sorry. Anybody want to say anything? >> I think you're good. Keep going. >> Make make a motion to approve the pilot payment from Milton Academy. >> Second. >> Made seconded. Member Agy. >> Yes.
>> Driscoll. >> Yes. >> Shamber. >> Yes. >> Nolan. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. >> Right. Item 16, letter to the commission on pilot for stateowned land and regarding potential changes to this pilot program. the letter um as you're
also drafted here regarding the state potentially changing some of the pilot calculations which would directly affect >> m Mr. Chairman I'm going to um recuse myself from this discussion to avoid the
appearance of a conflict of interest. My employer has stateown land in the town. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> sending text. All right, >> I'll kick it to Cody.
>> Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, [snorts] so as you me see, there's a letter that we have drafted um to the commission which was established last year. Um for background, this has been an ongoing issue that the state has considered largely because uh
communities in western and central Massachusetts um feel that they are largely um left out from the benefits of the pilot program. Um Milton uh receives the fourth most
funding of any community uh in in the state through the stateowned um pilot program. Um I spare the details of the calculation that goes into that, but Milton certainly benefits um because of the um because of the land within the
Blue Hills reservation and the calculation that places value on state land in Milton uh to the tune of 1.578 million um this year. Uh and that is that represents about 2.8% of the total state
appropriation. Um so as you can imagine any fluctuation or reccalibration of this of the um calculation that the state uses to distribute those funds would affect Milton significantly one way or the other. So if the program's appropriation
grow benefit under this current program. However, if this commission recommends uh certain policy changes to the program um that redistributed money um under the program rather than expand the pool of
money could be negatively. So, um, the letter essentially, uh, encourages the commission to consider reforms that expand that money as opposed to redistributing those funds across different communities and potentially
pushing money from one community across the next. Um I would also just add that this is consistent with um several reports from the state auditor which is called for a hold harmless provision with any policy change to ensure that
communities have consistency going forward. Um, so I think this letter is a good opportunity for us to emphasize the value of this revenue to Milton. uh given the significant significant impacts of state to Milton
and obviously questions questions in your email to us we're number four in the state from the state so that's a massive change for us >> potentially
>> yes oh yeah it could be yes it could be a change depending on what the commission recognizes about the state. And I'll just note [clears throat] that the members of the commission and the directive of the commission are specifically to study the impacts of
equity across Massachusetts and the members that are on the commission are largely western Mass and Central Mass representatives. I don't really need the student mass representatives on there. So, it's definitely teed up to recommend changes. We just want to make sure that
they hear from us as well as they do. >> I think we're definitely at risk here if the pot stays the same, but I think the letter is fantastic. I think you did a real nice job with it, Cody. I think there's um some good substance to it. Um
you know, I don't I don't have any comments to the letter. I think you did a real nice job. >> Thank you. I'll take a motion. >> Move to approve the comment letter to the commission on payment in le of taxes for stateowned land and authorize the chair to sign the letter on the
>> second and second. Mr. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. >> All right. move to our committee reports and member Hagert's back just in time. So the first two committees you are the
general so take us there. >> Yeah. So um for select board finance committee I think uh town administrator Milano pretty much covered what we discussed recently. Um but in for the budget coordination committee, we are um
we are gearing up to um initiate the budget planning process for fiscal 28 in August. uh which is which is going to be um earlier than we've um typically started the process
at the suggestion um of a few members of the group and in order to get um a proposed budget submitted to the warrant committee earlier. Um it's just part of our improvements to making the budget
process work uh more smoothly. So, um these are all good, uh changes and um we look forward to more activities starting up in August. >> Committee.
>> Um just another line, I mean, we largely talked about the recent meeting which was pretty substantive with the architects on July 6th. Um really impressive firm. They met with us, the school building committee, after I think that morning. They met with
um with Superintendent Failen and Bernardet Butler and Sean Heror to sort of talk learn more about sort of the space needs and and sort of think about planning future
space needs. Um, we talked one thing I just wanted to I mean just a couple things that stuck out to me from their sort of update after they've done their sitewalk basically of the property. Um, they were really pleased with the
structure of the building um, you know, of the building, the classroom, you know, building C or whatever that's called. Um, um, you know, so some real, you know, promising findings as they're starting to sort of look at the viability of that building.
um that we we did talk a little bit about like what are you reviewing, you know, in the timeline that you have and what is for consideration at a later date as you kind of really nail down um you know what the cost of a building,
you know, school building that would cost and um you know, are there any sort of I think they use the word like hiccups to kind of come across like what hiccups are we kind of identifying ruling out now versus later. Um, you know, so they kind of reinforced their
their um satisfaction so far with they're looking at structurally. They did say, you know, there would be, I think, a deeper structural review, you know, at a later later phase. Um, you know, you look at traffic later, engage the
community later. um the big tree situated on the property would which is I think you know important to the neighborhood let's just say would be the location of a potential
addition to school. So there's you know we're just kind of talking about like what are we getting from you this month and what is for consideration you know that has to keep happening. So um you know that was helpful. I think they're deliverable to us this month will be um
include some different scenarios which I think will be helpful like one with you know trying to fit the classrooms in the building as is um and one with an addition. So I think hopefully that provides some pricing optionality just to you know keep educating us but really
helpful meeting. So >> and John for trust >> nothing new to report on the housing trust. Uh just the last time we met was the last week of June the first week of July and we awarded some money to
Miller. We haven't met since unless they threw me off the committee. I don't know. >> They were reorganizing so >> might not have made the new oneized Uh, thank you all. Um, the next few are
motions for committees. Um, if there are no questions or issues, I think it's best for us to take it as a single motion. >> Take a motion. >> Move to approve the board and committee reappoints as they appear on the meeting
agenda. >> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. Member [clears throat] Heg. >> Yes. >> Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. Over. >> Yes. >> Snowman. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes. >> Right. That will bring us to item 19. One day liquor license historic New
England Eustace estate. I'll take a motion. Any questions? to move to approve the 1-day liquor license historic New England used as estate located on 1424 Kent Avenue for October 17th, 2026 from
7 to 10 p.m. in the Victorian spiritualism for the Victorian spiritualism party in the >> Victorian spiritualism. >> You will have to attend to find out. >> Okay. Motion made. >> Second. >> Seconded. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Snow. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes. And I might have to go to Bridgetton. That sounds like >> Bridgetton. >> Bridgetton. There we go. There it is.
All right. >> Item 20. Uh, application use of the town green and Baron Hugo Gazebo. Take a motion. Direct questions. make a motion to accept the application to use the town green and barono gazebo on on
Sunday September 20th 2026 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for international overdose awareness day sponsored by Milton Coalition >> second >> motion made seconded member >> yes
>> yes >> yes >> myself yes Moving into item 21, application to use town green zone. Take a motion. Move to approve the application to use
Manning Park East Milton Deck on Friday, September 4th, 2026 from 400 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for the back to business event sponsored by the Milton Art Center and the Milton Chamber of Commerce. >> Second. >> Motion made second. No. >> Yes. Srisco, >> yes.
>> Sh. >> Yes. >> Snowman, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. >> Moving along to item 22. Common Victoria license pizza. >> Make an approval application for a common Victoria Victor license pizza
company located at 538 Adam Street, Milton, Mass. >> Second. >> Motion made second. Megan, >> yes. >> Mr. Driscoll, >> yes. >> Sh. Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes.
>> Item 23, meeting minutes, June 9th and June 17th. Take a motion. Um move to approve the meeting minutes dated June 9th and June 17th, 2026. >> Second.
>> I'll give you a second. >> Oh, okay. I could do them separately. Okay. be um move to approve the meeting minutes dated June 9th, 2026. >> Second, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> And myself, yes. >> And then move to approve the meeting minutes dated June 17th, 2026. >> Second. >> Seconded in agony. >> Didn't hear any. >> Yes.
>> All right. >> Yes. You guys [clears throat] shower? >> Yes. >> Stolen? >> Yes. >> And myself? Yes. >> All right. Brings us to the town administrator report. >> Keeps going. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, speaking of the Eustace, estate, I um was invited up
last week to visit and see the work that they've been doing with CPC funds. Um I joined Tom C and Pete Jackson for the tour and um a very very very deep dive into um masonry practices and mortar and
stone work. So uh I've learned a thing or two. Uh but appreciate the time to go up there. And I learned and I did not notice I don't know how I didn't know that the front building that a butts can't have as office and some of the employees of historic New England work out at that. So um I had no idea about
that. appreciate the opportunity to see the entire state and see the house and visit. Uh Declan Wear started on the week before July 4th. So for the specific date as the new director of veteran services for the Randall
Veterans District u was previously uh in that same position with Tower Whitman. So, uh, he's been here. He's been, um, right at work, um, getting stuff done in terms of veterans who receive benefits to the town as well as, um, VA benefits and claims. Our hometown here is
program. So, he's he's dive right in. He's fit right in. So, appreciate welcome to Milton. Um, he'll be working in Milton on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This has been custom out of the council on aging and balance his time. uh the um we posted about it um shortly
before the July holiday, but uh thanks to DPW4 uh planting uh joining what has been a bit of a trend of planting a commemorative tree for the 2015. So that tree um is now located outside on town green closest to town hall and elm tree
in recognition of the original liberty trees and we'll work on a flag to go along with it. So uh DPW team is excited to It's a state of that one. Um, in addition, the the stage on the deck in East Mountain is built. So, if you
haven't seen it, it's it fits nicely into the landscaping there. Um, just a small um structure that came together in the course of a few days. Appreciate DND construction for blowing that up. And again, funded 100% by state air marks by
Wells. Uh lastly, a new um police officer, Emily Hardling, started a couple weeks ago with the town. Um she previously kept with us, went to transit police and has returned now police officer. So was under training. Um but
uh unlike normal hires where they're hireing, she's um already at that point. So we expect her to be able to um work individually much sooner than another officer that goes through the process.
In addition to that, three new firefighters are slated to start believe later this week before heading to the academy. I'll take that next week. And lastly, as Jo
as well. So starting closely positions um that we have across various departments. That's it. >> All right. Uh chair's report. Not much. We have the next day.
Just want to thank everyone for these not landing and um the 25th and all the decorations. I think that's combination of citizens as well as the New York workers. So much appreciative for everyone for their work. Also, Milton Music Fest, which I think is now run by
we Milton held their annual event on the hill, which I know was really well received. I was not able to attend, but again, thank you for everyone that works to continue with our traditions in town. Still never really sure why we have archery uh thing set up up there right now, but [snorts]
[laughter] we'll figure that out. Uh those two are for me, and I will just then move it to the members. Yeah. Uh, I want to thank Lynn, the DPW in your office for decorating that deck. I got a lot of phone calls and I tried to tell them I had nothing to do with
it. After the third one, I just took the credit. But, uh, it was greatly well decorated. A lot of people appreciated that. And, uh, I don't know, like four, five weeks ago, me and my wife went out to dinner Friday night. We're up on Randolph Vavs, you know, going creeping
along. the people using those turning lanes up past Hillside Street going to the light going towards Randolph. I mean one after another, one after another. I did call one 1212 to and the cadet was
very nice but uh they got to watch that Nick. >> Okay. >> You know what I mean? They're going right up the middle and they're cutting right in when the lights green. >> Yeah. Okay. That's good feedback and feedback we can share with Mass as well in terms of any engineering options that
they have but I'll share that with the chief in terms of just continued enforcement there. >> No, thank you. >> For me, >> nothing from me. >> Oh, but we got one up on the teeth. We got that police officer trained.
>> Exactly. [laughter] better job here. >> Uh public comment response. I want to open this up for anyone anyone else though that to share something as well from the firefighters that came in. I will just say um we are limited in what we can say um around collective bargaining but uh our firefighters are
heard. Uh we are dedicated to not only public safety but also um good compensation of public safety workers. Uh negotiations are never easy and we are also very very uh encouraged that we would end in a good space with our
firefighters and others when this come up. But thank you um not only for their work but for coming in uh tonight. Um I have friends in in the fire service and I hear from other spaces. I also have friends who have passed from occupational cancer. So I do hear understand what firefighters are saying.
So anything else members would like to add? I just want to echo that a little bit. I want to thank Joe Byron and and and the other firefighters who not only showed up tonight, but for the work that the whole team does for the t town. It's um
it's seen and you know, we heard you tonight. So, >> yeah. And I I'll just double down on that, triple down on it. I appreciate the firefighters coming in um this evening and it really shows their dedication and
>> and I agree with all of you. >> All right. Uh future meeting schedule next Tuesday and then Tuesday, August 4th. Um I don't think I'd be able to make any other Tuesdays in August. So we have to scrap the 18th and we'll be back on the day.
uh board also attended the meeting will be the last week of July depending on if we get these reports back to us just to meet discuss. So last one of July 27th 2019
future agenda items. Um I think we have to get um traffic subcommittee on the agenda. Um I mean looking at our goals, goal 3.2 to
um is drafted and adopted charge and composition for you know blah blah blah to oversee the implementation of you know the tool design study that work is kicking off. So I think um time just to kind of finalize how that work is going
to be overseen from a committee perspective um you know should should probably be on the agenda next week if we can get it. you know, I know I've been trying to move the ball on that um and and had really good conversation with, you know, different potential
stakeholders in town about how that could look, you know, from from Nick to Liz Manning to Tom McCarthy to um who am I forgetting? But so I think we can maybe just try to finalize our
thinking on that. I don't know, Nick. Matt, I don't want to put you on the spot, but do you think that we could be ready to kind of talk about that at next week's meeting? >> Sure. Yeah, definitely. I think we can distribute something by the end of the week. >> Okay. >> Works. Um, the only other one I was thinking of
is if we've at some point we might want to think about if we've had like any updates from Mass Dot in terms of followup on thinking about how they might be able to help think about cannav
calming measures. Um, you know, I know that was sort of an action item from May. Um, so maybe we might be coming up on that soon, one of these upcoming meetings if if we've heard anything from them or if there's anything we can help with. >> Okay,
great. That's great. So with that, I will move. I'll move to enter executive session to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property laboratory college 303 Adam Street based on I believe the discussion of this matter in open session have detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the select
board. The select board will not return to open session. I'll also move to enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining. Milton Therapy Unit of the Southeastern Public Employees Association, Milton Professional Management Association, Milton Public Employee Association, Milton
Firefighters, Local 1116, Milton Police Association, Milton Superior Officers, Milton Library Association. Based on the belief that discussion of this matter in open session may have a detrimental effect on bargaining position of the select, the select board will not return to open session.
Motion to return. >> Yeah, you second. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Second. >> Second. Hey second member Hagen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Driscoll. >> Yes. >> Sh. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes.
>> Move to adjourn. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Second. Member. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Myself. Yes.