Speaker 1: Okay. Hi. This is a meeting of the Natick Select Board on March 24th, 2026. We are now in session. It, it is now six thirty seven and I call this meeting to order. Do we have any announcements? Mr. Erickson, do you have any about you first? Speaker 2: I don't have any announcements. There is something I'll cover under 10 administrator updates. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: I have announcements. Speaker 1: Hi. Rich was here first 10 minutes ago, Ted. I don't want that to be. Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. So I have two things. One is remember to vote next Tuesday, March 31st.
We have a local election. And the second thing is, I'm really sad to report that swastika were found at the, in the seventh floor bathroom of the Kennedy Middle School. And I'd love to say this isn't the natick we are, but this keeps happening. And so there is part of the town that is like this. It's not the town I want it to be. I don't think any of us want it to be that town. But I'm really upset and disheartened by the fact that we keep seeing swastikas around town. And I realize seventh graders don't always have the best
judgment, but they learn this someplace. And so I think it would be great if we had a way just to talk to our, our youngsters and say, this isn't right. And that's it. Speaker 1: And Speaker 4: On an administrative note, for those of us that are follow town politics and follow town events, and especially follow the select board, we are delighted
to announce that we have our policies finally available online. So if you go to the town website, under government, under select board, you will see our select board policies. There's a number of them that we have updated recently. There's some that are under review and there's some that will need to be looked at. But if you're interested in finding out what kinds of things that we work on in our spare time, it is there for you to see on the website. Speaker 1: So Speaker 5: Thank you. And thank you for your, your comments. Rich, I just wanted to, to share an event
that's happening at the, at tecan on Tuesday at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM This event was rescheduled from, I think it was the second due to the weather, but it's sponsored by the Natick Center Cultural District. It's a, it's an event that they're, they've been having every women's history month, which is March. And so it's called We Love Women, the Power of You Strategic Brand Building for Entrepreneurs. It's been rescheduled to Tecan next Tuesday at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM It's for women, but everyone is welcome.
So it's been really good in the past and I encourage people to go if you're able and then you can go vote. Speaker 1: Thank you, Ms. Pope. I just, I have two comments just following up on Mr. Sidney's comment. We did receive notice actually secondhand through the school, that they would be taking action to investigate this and to take remedial action with the students if they're found. Hopefully they are, but they will also reinforce
that this is an unacceptable behavior. And much to Mr. Sidney's point, this is unacceptable. It, it's a poor reflection on our town. It's not just kids being kids. They get it from somewhere and it needs to be nipped in the butt every time it shows up. So I thank Mr. Sidney for bringing it to our attention as it was not provided to us by the school, which is a separate issue that we need to address is better communication between native public schools and us, even though we're not directly responsible
as the select board, we need to be apprised of, of when this happens because we are part of the greater community. The other thing that I wanted to talk about is something that Ms. Walser brought up, which is the policies that are online. One of those in particular requires that all select board appointed committees are now have to be available on Zoom. So that includes, and, and we just verified this through an agenda, the zoning board.
So they previously have not had remote Zoom capability. And now all those committees are required to do that. They can, if they need support, request that from the town and the town will provide some guidance, but they're now required to do that. So without further ado, I'll go to public speak. Any individual may raise an issue that's not included on tonight's agenda, and it will be taken under advisement. There'll be no opportunity for debate during this portion of the meeting through the requirements of open meeting law.
There. This section's limited to 10 minutes and any one person cannot speak for more than three minutes. Do I have any, anybody who wants to speak? Anyone? Okay. Moving along to proclamations, we have two that we need to approve. The first is Paul Caru retirement. So Ms. Pope, do you want to read that or do you want you have that available or Speaker 6: Just a second. Speaker 5: Okay. This Speaker 1: Before we get started, lemme lemme just preface this.
This is just, this is not the actual end event of this proclamation. Mr. Caru will be invited to a future select board meeting so that he can bring his friends and family to be honored at a future meeting. This is just for us to approve the language on it and make sure we don't have any typos or such. So, great. Sorry Chris. Speaker 5: So the resolution for Paul Eugene Caru reads as whereas Paul Caru grew up in Natick
and is a proud member of Natick High School's class of 1970. And whereas Paul married his wife Marguerite Peggy Cronin on May 2nd, 1998, and raised their daughter Katie May Caru in Natick. And whereas Paul enlisted enlisted in the United States Marine Corps shortly after graduating from high school and joined the second battalion, fourth Marines hotel company supporting a helicopter force based in the USS Triple E. And whereas as a further part of his deployment
during the Vietnam War, Paul went on missions to Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan as well as Vietnam. Whereas during his service in the United States Marines, Paul earned the good conduct medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Rifle Marksmanship Badge. And whereas Paul was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps, the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and the United States Coast Guard Reserve. And whereas during his time as a Natick resident,
Paul has served on the Natick Housing Authority and has been an active member of the community serving in leadership positions at the ELs Lodge, 1425, the Amvets post 79, the Metro West Veterans Outreach Center, and the Natick Veterans Council. And whereas for the last 16 years, Paul has served as the Veteran Service Officer and the Veterans Burial Officer, ensuring that Natick veterans and their families have support in obtaining their benefits, grave markers, and faithfully executing
the responsibilities of that office. And during that period of time, Paul served at the Americans with Disabilities Coordinator for the town. And whereas during his tenure as the VSO, Paul has overseen the establishment of 70 veterans Square dedications in Natick, honoring those Natick residents who honorably served in the four branches of the armed services. And whereas to ensure that Natick veterans received the best care and support possible, Paul continued his education and sought multiple certifications such as certification
and smart recovery for alcohol use and disorder. And whereas Paul has earned the respect and gratitude of many of his colleagues, residents, and elected and appointed town volunteers and officials by the way in which he has supported veterans every day. And whereas Paul will retire on March 28th, 2026, after many years of dedicated service to the town of Natick, and the select board wishes to recognize him for his service. Now, therefore, the select board congratulates Paul Caru on
his well-deserved retirement, extends its sincere appreciation for his years of dedicated service to the town of Natick and wishes him a long, happy and healthy retirement in the company of his family, his loved ones, and his many friends in witness thereof, we have here unto set our hands and cause the seal of the town of Natick to be affixed this 18th day of March, 2026. Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Ms. Pop. So moved. I I want to thank Ms.
Coughlin for all of her research and working with the family to get all the details of his service of his life. And so it was more than, more than a little bit of work and more than a few emails. So thank you Ms. Kauf. So moved by Mrs. Sidney. We have a second, Speaker 5: Second Speaker 1: Move by Mr. Sidney. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. 5 0 0. Let's go on now to Charlotte Schwartz is hundredth Speaker 5: Birthday.
Okay. The proclamation presented to Charlotte Schwartz, whereas Charlotte Schwartz was born on May 5th in 1926 and has reached the remarkable milestone of their 100th birthday. And whereas Charlotte Schwartz has witnessed a century of profound change, witnessing history unfold. And whereas Charlotte Schwartz has been a beloved member of the Natick community, sharing her wisdom, kindness, and spirit with friends, family, and neighbors for many years as a town meeting member and Natick Senior Woman of the year.
And whereas reaching this milestone is a testament to a life filled with resilience, strength, and joy, serving as an inspiration to all who know her. And now therefore, the select board of the town of Natick, Massachusetts does hereby proclaim May 5th as Charlotte Swartz Day in the town of Natick and encourages all residents to celebrate this momentous occasion and witness and witness wear of we have here on two, set our hands and caused the seal of the town of Natick to be affixed on this day of 2026.
Thank you, Mr. So there's a misspelling to her name in the third graph that needs to be fixed. Speaker 1: Yes. Charlotte Sport. Spell that. Thank you. Any others? And I just wanna talk a little bit about Charlotte Schwartz for those who don't know her. She's a longtime Natick resident. She has been active in pretty much everything. My first experience with her was at camp when, when she would volunteer there. And this was decades ago also, when I first ran
for select board, there was a senior, I think it was a St. Patrick's breakfast, and I saw her sitting down at a table and I, I said, hello? And, and, and she said, oh, let me take you around to meet everybody. So I thought, okay, I'll meet a couple people and then I'll sit down and have lunch. She brought me to every single table, introduced me to every person sitting at that table. And it was probably close to a hundred people at that time.
And, and her, her pitch, I didn't even have to say a word other than, hi, I am Bruce Evans also. She said, this is Bruce Evans, you should vote for her. So I was said, okay. So that was my, my experience. She was, she would describe herself as the world's oldest, oldest teen. And I think that's kind of appropriate. Any comments? Yeah. Do I have a motion? So move So second with that typo fixed, Mr. Sidney and Ms. Walsh. All in favor of say aye. Aye. Aye.
Aye. Aye. Also, thanks to Donna Donovan who put that together working with Charlotte's daughter Amy. So thanks. Speaker 3: Yeah, let me know when the corrected document is available. I'll come sign it. Speaker 1: Okay. Because Speaker 7: It should be tomorrow. Speaker 1: Yeah, Speaker 4: There's, it should be tomorrow. There's also errors in Paul Carus. I found three typos, so we need to fix that too. Okay. Speaker 1: Okay. So you Speaker 7: Have the physical ones here, mark? Speaker 1: I don't, but Okay, Speaker 7: That's fine. We'll, we'll send, we'll get 'em print out tomorrow. Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Next up, I'm gonna go a little bit out of order, which is
to discuss the do item B under discussion and decision first, which is to discuss the select board recommendation letter to through the finance committee town meeting book. So basically in a nutshell, because we, the study group, the turf natural turf natural and artificial turf study committee or study group wasn't a committee, it didn't really fit in the committee article. That typically is part of the standard warrant.
So we thought it prudent as, you know, to put it as a separate article. So this is just the FinCon questionnaire that that goes through. What, what we're planning to present at at town meeting in, in essence, we're expecting to do an interim report. We've inter interviewed a great number of people. We don't expect to have the final conclusions by town meeting. What we are seeing though, is a lot,
we've talked to a lot of the youth groups. We, we looked at it from the demand side first. Like how, how are fields being used? What is, what is the urgent need for fields? And, and we're finding out from the various youth groups, from the high school groups, from the maintenance, the LFNR group, what things they're considering. So considering not just installation costs, but overall cost of maintenance, how long it it
is, is in place, what happens to it when it's not. So we're, we're starting that work. We have four people on the committee or the group. I keep saying committee, I shouldn't, one is Julie McDonough who led the study while she was on the school committee. So she had a lot of background and information on it. One representative from the school committee, Matt Brand, myself from the select board and Carla Sri, who's on the board of health. So we're trying to balance perspectives and provide this
information back to town meeting. As you recall last fall, there was a lot of discussion regarding a moratorium and that's why this working group was, was formed to address some of those concerns. I want to be clear though, to people watching, watching at home. This does not, this is not a decision on what we do with the JV or practice field. That's an independent issue that's under the control of the school committee and is a vote of town meeting.
So that's not our decision. Any questions? Speaker 3: So, Mr. Chair, I, I'm, I'm gonna take this up a level. I think that the, I, I only see three articles that we want to put into a letter to FinCon for the FinCon book. And that's 12, 13, and 17, which is the one you just discussed. Looking at the warrant, you know, the, the typical articles, we can express an opinion, but I don't necessarily think it's necessary. And most of the other articles are
not necessarily in our purview Speaker 1: Largely. Yeah. Other comments? Speaker 4: Asha? I think we should weigh in on some of the others too. I mean, we, we heard last time that we don't have unpaid bills, so there's nothing we need to do there, but I think we should weigh in on the capital equipment and improvement that was presented to us. And I think, and I don't, we could also weigh in on the budget, but I don't know if we typically do do that. Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not opposed to that. I just, and Speaker 4: Collect and collective bargaining if there will be any. Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's, I can, I can see that. I'm not sure it's, we if we're gonna do
that revolving funds as well. Speaker 4: They tend to be, they don't change here. Speaker 3: Yeah, well there is, there is an amend no Speaker 4: One. Speaker 3: Yeah, it says amend so. Well, Speaker 2: I can speak a bit to that. So what we're doing with the amendment is we're just cleaning it up from all the different work that we've done to it over the last five years or so. 'cause we've added a couple and we're actually putting it in a new format in the bylaws so that it's more clear to read following more of what the DLS actually has as a standard format. So it, it's a net benefit. We've actually already presented it to the fin com and got, I believe, unanimous support for it
as well as unanimous support. There were a couple tweaks to, I, I, I don't, I don't recall exactly which ones, but there are a couple tweaks to some of the, the ranges or the amounts just to better align with what we're actually seeing as need. So, but I'm happy to, to provide that material to the board if you'd like to make a comment on it. Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, essentially we're deciding whether we're gonna vote on supporting it. Speaker 2: Correct. I just wanted to be aware of what was presented and what the, what the, what those were provided, what, what was provided in this. Speaker 1: We want to come back, I'm not sure if we can do
that on the, this agenda. Speaker 5: No question Mr. Chair. Speaker 1: Yeah. All right. Hand, Speaker 5: Do we need to weigh in on stabilization funds? Is that something that the board thinks that we need to weigh in? I Speaker 3: Don't remember. The agenda says whatever's on the letter so we can discuss any of them as to whether we wanna put favorable or unfavorable. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: Right. That okay? Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you're right. I was more clever than I thought for phrasing that. Yeah. So which do we, we wanna take them and Speaker 3: Why don't we just go, why don't you go down and, and we can just let,
Speaker 1: Well, first, first let's do the all. We'll go in order. Speaker 4: So can I be, go ahead, ask a question about what we're doing tonight. Are we just talking about the ones that we plan on adding to the letter or are we talking about voting on some of these because we don't have the motions? Speaker 3: Well, I think generally we know whether we're supporting or not. Speaker 4: We, we don't have the motions. Rich. I, I'm not gonna vote on anything if I'm not sure on what's actually being presented to town meeting. Speaker 3: Well I, we know what the motions are for 12 and 13 and we know what the motion is for 17 or, and
Speaker 4: I do know those three Speaker 1: Also. Capital. I thought John had presented that to FinCon and got an approval. Speaker 3: Yeah, and we saw that as well. We saw it earlier. Speaker 4: We saw it. We saw it, but we don't have it on the agenda. We don't have it attached on peak. We don't have it. Speaker 8: But the agenda says we can discuss anything on that. The fact that it's not attached on peak shouldn't preclude us from voting on that. I agree with you. We should have the motions, but if we've had the motions, if we can look them up on the, on FinCon, I think we should, I think we should include it.
If, if members of the board want to include Speaker 3: It, either that or take it up, you know, at an off cycle meeting af after the election you got, I mean it's, the book isn't going out until Speaker 1: April 8th. Speaker 3: Yeah. So you could cut off, you could get it in the book if you had a meeting before April 8th. Speaker 1: I'd like to avoid that as we already have three meetings in four April scheduled. Yeah. So if we can do that tonight, I think it'll be advantageous to us that there's discomfort and we we'll have to wait.
So we, we've heard from Linda and we've heard from Rich and Catherine. What's your opinion, Chris, Speaker 5: In, in regards to waiting or not to vote? I, I would like to get as much done this evening with Mr. Sidney as possible. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: And I, and I know, I know we wanna recommend favorable action on 12, 13 and 17. I know that I, I don't think there's just, I I can't imagine there's disagreement on the board about those three. So why don't we start with those and then we can come back
and say, okay, what else do we feel comfortable approving? Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: So I move, we recommend favorable action on the subject matter of article 12 Speaker 1: On a second. Speaker 5: Second Speaker 1: Move by Mr. S seconded by misspelled discussion. Speaker 3: This is the request to extend Chief X contracts. Yes. Speaker 1: As age 65. I once on twice sole. Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Speaker 3: Aye. Aye. Speaker 1: And the
5 0 0, if I heard it correctly, Speaker 3: In favorable action of the subject matter of article 13, Speaker 1: Five or six second. That it's, Speaker 3: That's Speaker 5: W yeah. Speaker 3: DC l Speaker 5: I'll second. Speaker 1: Okay. Discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Speaker 3: Aye. Speaker 1: Okay. Article 17, should I just present it a few minutes ago? Speaker 3: Move favorable action, move that we recommend favorable action and subject matter or 17. Speaker 1: Okay. And second session. Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
Okay. Capital. When did we hear that? Couple weeks ago? Yeah, about two weeks ago. I'm trying to find it in my meeting. Speaker 3: We heard it on the 25th of February. Speaker 1: I thought it was in February. Okay, thank you. Just pull that up. Thank you Mr. Spinney. Speaker 3: So I'm happy to move favorable recommending favorable action on article nine. Speaker 1: Okay. There's a motion A and a motion B Speaker 3: Well on the subject matter. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: So it would be for both. Speaker 1: Alright. I have a second. Second. Thank you. All in favor of say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
5 0 0 a. Oops. Sydney, you're on a roll. Speaker 3: Well, so given what Ms. Slager said, the only one I see left that we actually have a clue about is article seven, which is the revolving funds bylaw. So I, I don't know if you feel comfortable with recommend making a recommendation on that or not, given what Mr. Erickson said. Speaker 1: Did, do we know when it was approved at FinCon We could look it up on the FinCon agenda? Speaker 2: I'm looking it up now. I think it was last Thursday. Speaker 1: So last Thursday. Speaker 2: Yes. We can pull that up from there from the agendas on the website
Speaker 3: And I'm happy to make a motion if, if we're gonna get a reasonable vote on this. Speaker 2: Yeah. Confirmed it was the, it was the, it's on their agenda on March 19th. Speaker 1: Okay. March 19th income again. Speaker 2: And it's article, well, technically it's two articles. Article seven and Article eight. Right. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 3: Well I'd say the amendment is something we're interested in. I'm not sure that the, I mean if we're not gonna talk about the budgets or stabilization funds, we can sort of leave the,
the revolving funds themselves alone and just deal with the bylaw. Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Speaker 3: It would look kind of funny if we were talking about Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: The amounts on the revolving funds without talking about the budget, Speaker 1: The process. Yeah, we wanna weigh in on the process. That makes sense. Alright, any other thoughts? Jim? It was 19th. Speaker 2: Yes. It was March 19th. So it was last Thursday. Speaker 4: Yeah. So for those of you that haven't been able to bring it up yet, it's, it's actually, it looks very different from It did the way it, it used to look.
Correct. So there's, it actually looks like a, a real bylaw. Correct. And it has language for purpose, expender expenditure limitations, interest procedures and reports. Another section for authorized revolving funds followed by a table of all of the revolving funds with categories for the title, the department of board fees or other charges credited to the fund. So providing nice detail there and then what the expenses payable from the fund are, and then if there's any restrictions
and other requirements reports and what the fiscal year is. So it's a lot more detailed than we've had in the past. Speaker 1: It's much better. Speaker 4: Much, much better. Speaker 3: So I move, we recommend favorable action on subject matter vertical seven second. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Sidney and Ms. All in favor say aye. Aye. Speaker 4: Aye, aye. Speaker 1: All Speaker 3: Right. And I think that pretty much does it, as far as I'm concerned from we don't know anything about the change to the Yeah. Animal control. It's, Speaker 2: That's still pending. Speaker 3: That's still pending. So Speaker 1: The only thing that we could be adding at some point is collective bargaining.
Speaker 3: Oh, bargaining. Bargaining. And, but Speaker 1: That we can wait, you know, we, yeah, Speaker 3: We should, we should wait and see if there's anything actually gonna be in that article. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: And the budget articles have, they are probably posted, but they're being heard this Thursday by the finance committee. Yeah. Speaker 4: Usually they're not ready by now. Speaker 2: They're, they're ready. They're posted. They're up there. And I believe tonight, sorry. Yes, tonight they're also taking up the finance committees. I'm just gonna confirm on their agenda. They're taking up unpaid bills and PEG access.
They're also taking up collective bargaining, but they're just gonna put a pause on that basically until we can confirm. Speaker 1: Good. Okay. Nothing else on the warrant. Let's move on to item a review and discuss town administrator compensation. And I asked Ms. Kauflin to prepare a, a memo on this and she has come through and done so with, so I'll let her walk us through that. Speaker 8: Thank you Mr. Chair. Last year when I was chair,
I failed to put on the agenda discussion of a merit increase for the town administrator. So tonight we're considering or not considering a retroactive merit increase and one for this year, or at least entering into discussion about it. What you see on the first page of the memo is this what I called senior leadership compensation, which I looped in school superintendent, even though that's the school side. To give a sense of what the range is for the town administrator, the fire chief, police chief, and the superintendent under the town administrator,
fire chief and police chief. You'll see the notes of where the merit adjustments or whether there was a new contract start. So you can kind of see the history of self-explanatory. Then I did a search for peer communities so we can discuss, or not the peer communities, town manager or town administrators salaries. To start off, I look using two platforms of a AI asked for a list of towns and cities in Middlesex, Norfolk,
and Worcester counties that had a population plus or minus 10% of Natick and a budget, 10 plus or minus 10% of ours. And had a representative town meeting as a form of government because that's somewhat significant in terms of the workload. Billa was the only one that came up and when I widened the search a little bit to give their budget is somewhat less than 10% of ours or somewhat less than, yeah. 10% difference. Shrewsbury adds in their population is a little bit more than ours. So on the memo you'll see their salary, their budget
population, et cetera. The first list that came up, well, I'll just back up. It was surprising to me that there was only one town. And when I, with that data, when I expanded the search, and this is using the DLS table, these figures are all taken, the population and the salary and well the salary is taken from the individual towns, but the budget is taken from the 2025 submitted budget. So that we were looking at apples and apples. In other words, the current, if we were
to look at the current budget of, of Natick, it's not two, it's not 1 94, 6 29. That's what was submitted for fiscal 25. When I expanded that subset search out to the state at large. We still came up with those three towns and that surprised me. My opinion on why that is, is that towns with budgets and populations of the size generally have a town council, have migrated to a town council or a mayor council form of government. So that's why you only have three comps there. Had we started this process two months ago, we could have discussed what other parameters would give us a sense of what would be comparable.
But that's, that's what we have there. And there's, I guess that's all I have. If there's questions, I'll answer them, but I just turn it back to you chair for the discussion. Speaker 1: Thank you. Comments from the board. Speaker 5: Thank you for this research. Speaker 3: Thank you. Yes. Yep. Yes, definitely. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thoughts on the board Speaker 8: Or hopes and dreams? Speaker 3: Trying to put my thoughts in order. Okay. If I may or, or Mr. Sin. So I'm thinking about, okay, we didn't give him one last year and we, I believe we should have, his ratings
aren't significantly different year over year. On the other hand, I think that it might make sense to give him a single little bit higher merit now than try to give him something retroactive and then bump on top of that. And, which is not to say that I don't appreciate Mr. Erickson, but I'm also cognizant of his desire not to break the budget. And, and he said that to us before.
So I want to get, I wanna be really reasonable here and give him what he's worth without breaking the budget. And I'm not sure what that number is. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you Mr. Sydney. Further Speaker 3: Discussion? Speaker 5: Yes. If, if, if, if we are moving towards doing a retroactive bump as well as what would be for this particular year, I would prefer it to be as clean and intentional as possible, which means I would want to, for it to be separately retroactive
and then a separate colon bump. That is what I would, would Speaker 3: Be in favor. Well, if he gets it's colon bumps, that's not in question. It's c it's strictly a merit increase, which I'm discussing, Speaker 5: But we're, we're also discussing Speaker 8: No, every year. So the way it works is J July one, every single year, the entire townside gets a, a, the unions have their colas in their contracts and every non-union employee for the last two years has had a 2%, what's called the, the A CA what's that? The annual compensation adjustment on July one. So that's their cola. So that's automatically awarded.
So we're not discussing that. What we're discussing is just, just the merit increase either won for last year. So I think the, the choice between us is either one. For last year we award retroactive. I think Rich spoke eloquently to that and saying that let's do this clean and not trying to maybe, or we do just one for this year or we do none for either year or the third thing would be, I think I forgot the third thing. It doesn't matter. In any event, I think those are the choices before us. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, Speaker 1: Thank you Ms. Alfa. Speaker 2: If, if I can just briefly note a retro would be
challenging logistically for our payroll department. Speaker 8: Agreed. Speaker 1: So let's start. That was my question. Thank you. Speaker 2: Another reason to just give you one. Speaker 8: So I'd, I'd like to just put last year in context, if we're talking about a merit increase for the, for calendar year 2025, we had the budget override multiple discussions leading up to the board decision hovered somewhere around 8 million. Although we saw numbers where we would need as much as 15 to avoid any further
damage to the structural deficit, the board voted seven and Mr. Erickson and the schools had to get their teams in place to make sure they were able to deliver a budget on time, which was amended and, and, and brought forward and successfully passed the last couple of, not this coming town meeting, but several town meetings have had as many as 30 warren articles, which take a tremendous amount of time in preparing for and preparing staff and executing, setting up the communications plan
and the plan for the board for the future use of the former Johnson school was significant navigating the, even though we, the board and the town have no control over the decisions made navigating with mass DOT, the Route 27, route nine bridge replacement and interchange improvements took a significant amount of time working on the Natick Center development and ensuring that we're making progress towards getting grants to analyze what it is we might be able to do. And then dealing with the federal funding and the state funding uncertainty
and its impact on local services are significant. These are not challenges that are not necessarily, these are, these are challenges that almost every municipality in the state has dealt with. But I think that our time administrators dealt with them admirably and dispatched efficiently. Given that I would like to see US award a one, a one sum merit adjustment taking into account the challenges in fifth fiscal or in calendar 2024 for which he did not receive a merit increase and the extra challenges in in calendar 2025 as a one lump sum award.
Speaker 1: Everybody, let me just follow up on that. Does everybody agree with that approach? They'll, they'll lump sum covering both ears. Yes. No, maybe perhaps everybody agree? Nodding your head. Do you agree long term? Thank you. All right, Ms. Weslock. Speaker 4: So I'm not gonna go into any details on Mr. Erickson's performance 'cause I think we had a very long meeting last time where we, we went through his review in in great depth. Yeah, but I do have a question for him and that is how he determines how merit
increases are awarded within his department. 'cause I noticed the police chief and the fire chief have the same amount. That could be coincidental because I think we ought to be somewhat consistent with that. We don't have to be the same. But in terms of what the thought process is behind how these are generated, I don't think we should have something completely independent for what goes on in town hall. So if you could just talk about that a little bit. Speaker 2: Sorry. So for the last say four or five years, we've been sort of tweaking and adjusting this a little bit.
Coming into the role and being a former department head, I'm going back in history just a little bit just to show where we've come from. It used to be that merit and annual compensation adjustments were sort of merged into one time during the year as department heads we would do reviews of our staff and we'd get reviews of ourselves. So heading into the end of the fiscal year, then you would get allotted basically a percentage increase that would be effective July one. But oftentimes the budget wouldn't be approved until after fall town meetings. So we wouldn't actually get those adjustments
until like November timeframe. And so it'd be retroactive to July one. Now I'm just providing that context. So it was merged into one. And so what that meant was that effectively the percentages were viewed more of as like a cola. And the review process or the merit process really wasn't the feedback I even had as a department head. But also we received from a little other folks in departments was the merit process really wasn't a merit process, it was just you went through the process and there wasn't a lot of constructive feedback to go through. So when I was deputy TA
and then became ta, one thing we did as the department head team is we started a process of trying to revamp that entire process. We started with the forms, we tweaked those initially and then we realized that we actually felt it more appropriate to separate out what we now call the A CA or the annual compensation adjustment, which is sort of a lump. This is actually a, a Bob Rooney suggestion. So it goes back to when he was interim town administrator, separate out the lump, sort of everybody gets a percentage increase like a cola from the merit, which then meant that merit could be more,
you could put a little bit more time into it, a little more review and in theory be a little bit more meaningful 'cause it was based on something. So we did that separation. I would say about four years ago when we did that separation, we had the annual compensation adjustment, which is a percentage. And then we had the merit actually also as a percentage. And what we found there was, and this was also based on feedback from department heads, doing it as a percentage basis meant that lower wage workers as a percentage really wasn't, it was less, less meaningful.
So we switched two years ago to a flat number base because we wanted to make it more meaningful for the people who really are, you know, the, the working their way up, the, the and so therefore we set, yeah, every year we work as a team, the Deputy TA's HR director and myself to look at the budget, look at what we have for expected, where people will be graded because we have meets or exceeds and then, and and where people are on the grades.
So we have, what, seven, six grades and we set dollar amounts for those. Well we, we do grades one and two as a set dollar amount meets and exceeds three as a dollar amount meets and exceeds and four, five and six as a dollar amount meets and exceeds. And it's a set dollar amount and it's largely based on a little bit of an art, a little bit of a science in that we have to make sure we're within budget. So we run through where we're seeing some of the grades are coming in from the reviews as compared to what we can afford. And we mark that up and then we try to figure out to ensure
that we have a meaningful adjustment to people within those grades. And we take the midpoint of the grade on the, on the, the pay plan. So it's the mid 0.2, which is the midpoint, not the high, not the low, but the midpoint for grades four, five and six. We take the midpoint of grade four and then we set a dollar amount to that, which basically allows us to ensure that the people who might pay at a lower wage, it's a more meaningful percentage, it's also a more meaningful dollar amount. If you make a little bit more money, it's a little bit less. But that, that's intentional. And that was really direct feedback. I give credit to our department heads
'cause they were, when we were doing it before, we would almost say to them, what percentage do you want? And they're like, I'd rather give them more money and actually give myself less money because it's more meaningful to the workers. So I give everybody credit for doing that. And that was a lot of the po And so, so we've been doing that for the last two years. We're gonna make a a few tweaks going into next year again 'cause we're learning and we're getting feedback, but that's essentially where we are today and that's where those dollar amounts are set up. So it's a set dollar amount based on grade and, and and the, the reading basically.
Does that answer the most of the questions? I'm meant to answer any additional questions. Thank Speaker 1: You. That was very helpful. Thank you. Speaker 2: And oh, just for one thing, it's a set dollar amount that goes into the base pay. So we do have another opportunity for compensation. It's not really base pay compensation, but we do have a program of one-time bonuses, which are not base pay adjustments. They're one-time bonuses. What those are typically provided for are when somebody goes above and beyond their job description for a project or for a one-time like assignment or some in some cases when we have an empty
or a vacant position and somebody has to sort of step into a different role, but then they go back to their role when that vacancy gets filled, that's when we might do a one-time bonus. Those are usually recommendations that we get. We ask department heads or division heads or supervisors to make that recommendation. Like why does this person deserve it? And then we set a scale based on the level of effort and those can be from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars depending on level of effort and, and what, what is like the length of the initiative or the, or that the complexity of a project or, or what have you.
So we have different ways of providing appreciation to our employees. Speaker 1: Thank you. That's very helpful. Mr. Chairman one, one of the things, hold on. One of the things that listening to Mr. Erickson made me think about is what if we split the, the have merit increase for this year and a one-time bonus for the previous year because that way the merit increase only affects the base salary of this year. I Speaker 8: Think that's a creative way of doing that. What I was going to propose is to, I was going to propose a merit adjustment
of 2375 for last year. Not, not retroactive, but that figure plus the merit increase of 3,100, which would be in line with both what the fire chief and the police chief received for a one time increase of $5,475, which would bring the totals compensation to 2 47 2 15. I'm happy with either of either my proposal or Bruce having a one-time bonus and, and then a merit increase of 3,100, which is what both of the chiefs received.
Speaker 3: I prefer the single merit increase. Okay. It, by going with the bonus, we actually lower his future salary. And I think he deserves, I I had this a similar number in mind. I I think it's, I think it's a reasonable, especially since we're not gonna go retroactive, You know, they, they, if we look at, for example, if we look at the comps, Shrewsbury town manager is more highly paid than either Natick or Phil Rka and is a relatively smaller budget.
And so I think that getting Mr. Erickson up closer to that is quite reasonable. That's my opinion. I agree. You know, if we wanted, if if the board wanted to give him a bonus for his work in 25, a one-time bonus for his excellent work in 25, that's fine. I think it's a separate discussion. I really think we ought to focus on the merit right now. Speaker 1: What thoughts, just so you No, I threw out that idea of the one-time bonus as another permutation to consider. That's not necessarily the way I want to go.
So nobody wants to chime in. So I will chime in on what Ms. Coughlin proposed. I think that that's the number that i i, I was looking at in that neighborhood because that brings 'em up closer to the Shrewsbury, excuse me, Shrewsbury Town manager. And again, this is a relatively limited sample, but Billa is $3,000 or 2,500 below right now. So that would take care of his merit increase last year.
He just passed that and this is at a point in time, so I don't know when their reviews of their town manager took place. So I think the figures that Ms. Coughlin is proposing are, are right in the ballpark, in my opinion. Speaker 8: Is it clear to the board the reasoning why I picked those numbers? I don't know if I was very clear. Okay. Speaker 1: I move we award Mr. Erickson. Hold on. Let, let's hear from, well, Linda and Kristen, if I have thoughts first while we do motions, Speaker 5: I appreciate the, the additional detail that Mr. Erickson gave
and I like the proposal since we're not doing retroactive the proposal that Mr. Sidney gave. Speaker 1: Awesome. Speaker 4: Yeah, just trying to look a little further into some of the neighboring towns and, and how they're paid, not just, and Needham seems to have the, the lowest in terms of, but they have a new town manager and that's at 2 38 and she started last year. So I think that, you know, we're often compared with them, maybe not in terms of income
but in terms of like size town, I think that's another, another addition potentially to our comps. So I think, I think that's fair. I think I like the idea of tying it to the numbers that we have given the rest of the department heads, which is essentially what Ms. Coughlin did. And so I'd be in favor of that. Speaker 1: I move, I move we award Mr. Erickson a, a salary increase, a merit increase of $5,475 effective January
one second. By whom? A second. Second. Aye Ms. Kaufman, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you everyone for their good ideas and, and Ms. Coughlin for detailed work on this as well as the calculation. Thank you. Thanks. Really helpful. Thank. All right. Where'd my agenda go, Ernest. Okay. Consent agenda next up is the consent agenda. One item, Speaker 5: The consent agenda reads item A approved transfer of 2026,
common particulars license to Station five Grill Incorporated. Does anyone wanna move, take it off or have any discussion about it? Nope. Okay. So I move to approve item a Speaker 1: Second. All in favor please state aye. A aye. Awesome. An administrator updates. Amy, you mentioned you had some Speaker 2: I do have one. Well, fir first I appreciate the conversation and the recognition. It's awkward being in a setting where no, it's being talked about. Right. But I I do very much appreciate just the recognition
and, and by no means do I feel it, it's, it's, IIII feel fairly, I feel very much appreciated here. So thank you. I'm trying to say that tastefully for the cameras. So the one thing I wanted to just bring to the board's attention we received, and I don't know if it really warrants much conversation. We received just a, the other day a letter from the Mass State Lottery Commission about a Speaker 1: Keynote Speaker 2: Keynote at, at fons at fan's. And the deadline for review is
Speaker 1: 21 days after Speaker 2: Review, 21 days, which would be just after your, or just before It's like April 9th I believe. So it's before the April 15th meeting. So you don't really have time to to review there, there's no currently scheduled meeting whereby you're gonna be taking up business to review this. But I just wanna ask the board, do you feel it necessary to schedule a special meeting for this, you know, no deliberation tonight. I just wanna know from the board, do you want to schedule a special meeting for this item or do you or, or is there if there's, we just,
so if anybody feels there's a need then we can do that. But Speaker 1: Yeah, can we let, let me just add something that Donna Donovan put in. Yeah, please. I asked her. No, are there other places in town where this is, this is done and there, there are multiple locations where these are available. So you know, probably if you go into Amvets or you go into some of our Speaker 2: General stores or corner stores Speaker 1: Yes. Stores, convenience stores, you'll see these kiosks. Yeah. So it's nothing, you know, I just saw that it had a
time deadline on it, so I wanted to see what the experience of the town was, whether my understanding of these devices was this correct understanding and Donna said, yeah, they're used, I wouldn't say widely, but a significant number of places in town. Speaker 5: Can I ask a question about this? Don't we approve these in the fees when we do license, do we do licensing fees for this particular No, it's a state. Not for mass Speaker 2: Law. State mass law. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 1: Ms. Walker Speaker 2: Eugene fan for their alcohol, but not for Right. Like Speaker 1: Something, Speaker 5: It's a good question though.
Speaker 4: So just wanna clarify that if we do nothing, they're granted the monitor. Speaker 1: Yes. Correct. That's correct. Speaker 4: I just wanted Speaker 2: To, there's no requirement to comment rights Speaker 1: 21 Speaker 4: Day period. We don't have to do anything if, if we don't object to it, Speaker 2: Usually have a meeting so that we can Yep. Have it on correspondence or at least the chair can review it and be like, oh forward. Unusual Speaker 1: Given this Speaker 2: Is just the timing of this came in like literally I think it came to our desk yesterday. Yeah. So we had already posted for this meeting, but I just wanted make sure if the board wanted to review it at all, that we could schedule a meeting for that so you could deliberate.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. Speaker 2: The other, excuse me, the other item just to provide a brief comment on shoot, no, my computers, I apologize. Just looking ahead to the April 15th meeting, we tentatively have our state delegation scheduled for that night, Senate President, SPCA and Repinski. So I'll confirm in the coming days and, and weeks ahead. But I do want to have the board take some time to think
through what, what would you like to learn from our de Usually this is a time for us to ask questions. They do ask us to provide any topics or questions in advance just so they can prepare accordingly. So if the board has any questions or items, please just send 'em over to, to me and Bruce and then I can collect them and then get 'em over to the senate person, book his office. And as, as assuming the election goes as planned, it's extended to country as well. One week as in as anticipated. I guess maybe that's, that's the right way to say it. So I just wanted the board to be aware that we do have quite a bit that evening though,
'cause we are potentially gonna have our water sewer rate hearing that night. Yep. And I think we talked about potentially doing a proli, a potential actually giving of a proclamation that night for Mr. Caru. And then there's two or three other items that de that are fairly substantive that depending on how the agenda goes for that night, we'll add to that night like a Johnson update and a downtown parking, the Natick center parking update. Those also might go to the 29th, but we're just gonna, as the day gets closer,
we'll we'll see, but it's gonna be a full evening and I just wanted the board to be aware of that and start thinking about those questions for our delegation. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Sure. That's all for, Speaker 1: That's good. Thank you. Select board updates. Speaker 2: Move to adjourn. Yes, Speaker 8: I have none. That was quick. Rich, we Should we acknowledge that this is your last meeting? I, I think what we should do is allow him to make the motion to adjourn, but after everybody has, you will make the last motion to adjourn, but after everybody's had an opportunity to Okay. Say something. I have something to say. Thank you. If we will invite,
I anticipate the board will invite Mr. Sidney back at a future date to recognize, to issue a proclamation and recognize his work on behalf of the town in the select board. So it will not be on the night of the reorg, but it will be a night in, I will advise you in advance or Bruce will or somebody will, so that you can ensure that your friends and family are here. Speaker 3: No, I have this odd filter where I can't hear good things. Speaker 8: Well, we'll just shout. We can do that. We have microphones. Speaker 1: We'll bring placards. Speaker 4: We're gonna wait for a meeting
where there's more attendees to sing your praises, so Oh good. You, you're gonna have to wait till we have a greater audience. That's right. And you know, this is not goodbye. Speaker 8: No, Speaker 3: No, I'm still around. So, Speaker 5: Well I wanted to acknowledge that this is the, you know, the last kind of full voting meeting that you're gonna be at and it sounds like the, the trend is to wait to lavish praise upon you at a later time. Speaker 3: So yeah, try to unpack my ears and my brain. Well
Speaker 5: That's why you have those funny flashcards, so Speaker 8: Nice. Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe I'll, if I can, if I can remember I'll bring over. Speaker 1: Okay. Oh, I forgot what the referred to. Speaker 8: I think the chair will entertain that motion. Rich. Speaker 1: Yes. I'll, well hold on. I, yeah, we'll definitely move to require those flashlights next. Anyway, so I, I wanted to also thank Rich for all his ears of service on not only FinCon but town meeting or the select board, but FinCon and town meeting being a guide to all of us
as far as the charter and bylaws and understanding them intimately was very helpful. Yes. To me, understanding the rules of order in particular when I forgot to actually ask the board for a vote, reminding me that I had not done so in a kind, gentler, or gentle way. And I appreciate your candor, your honesty. We won't always agree a hundred percent of the time, but I know everything comes from your heart and so I greatly appreciate that. And the roast will be subsequent,
but we'll, we'll be nice Speaker 8: Indeed. Speaker 1: Right now Speaker 3: Moved to adjourn. Speaker 8: Second Speaker 1: Moved by Mr. Sidney. Seconded by Ms. Ka. All in favor say aye. Speaker 3: Aye. Aye. 7 41. Speaker 1: Thank you Richard.