Alrighty. So, it is 7:01 and what I'll do is uh Joe will start at your end of the table. Everybody just say their name and that will be our roll call vote. Joe Alli present. Richard Ke present. Frankie present. Eric Jacobson present.
Vanessa Rossy present. Patrick present. Excellent. We have a quorum. Hope I put my name on here. We have quorum with six present tonight. So we will open the meeting at 7:02. So our first order of business is
to review the minutes from our March 18th meeting and they are attached to the agenda. Um, apparently are very prompted starting at 702. Apparently we started out in the last one as well. Entertain a motion to accept. Motion.
Second. Any comment or suggested edits? All those in favor of accepting I opposed none 600 Z. Um also I will recognize
town officials um and give approval to speak during our discussions if necessary. Dana, as a member of the public, you are welcome to comment during public comment. I have nothing to say andor comment uh while as an elected official. I will go to a podium and say that if you want me. No, that's fine.
But yes, so um I do want to officially do our public comment section. Um to receive oral communications from members of the public, members of the public may address the finance committee for up to three minutes. The finance committee will not engage in discussion on topics
raised during public comment, but may choose to add the topic to a future agenda. This agenda segment will be limited to 15 minutes. Um, seeing no members of the public, Dana said he's not wanting to share anything during public comment. Uh, the chair also can share
written email communications received since our last meeting. Oh, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Do you have public comment? Could I please? Of course. You have three minutes. Us. Okay. And they
are Could you please explain article one, the $400,000? What that means? Uh the current capital plan, is that available on the town website? And
when does the committee expect uh to issue their FIN call report? Thank you. All good there. Um, there have been no written or email communications uh since March
18th. I think you'll find that we'll answer your questions as we work through our discussion this evening. Um, we also will have public comment in um on any of the articles specifically. Um we do not do public comment on the
articles that we do not vote on which are 1 2 16 and 21 to 28. None of those um do we have an opinion where will of the town on those. Um so on this for each of the different art the articles that we do have an
opinion on that we voted on um that is we will do uh oral communications from the public. Members of the public may address the finance committee for up to two minutes. This segment will be limited to 30 minutes. Please note comments must be relevant to the agenda item and the chair may interrupt comments if they're not relevant to the
agenda item. Um, and note direct questions asked may be addressed during the finance committee discussion or in the town meeting presentation. So the first order of business is our annual town meeting preparation. That is pretty much our main order of business for tonight. As
part of that, I did distribute in soft copy and attached to the agenda tonight is um our letter to Newberry voters, which is usually at the beginning of the finance committee appropriations booklet. Um so this is the letter that
we have in past years. I can show you last year's. Um, this is the finance committee appropriations booklet. It's usually the cover letter that goes in there and that is for us all to review, make edits to,
and um, so this doesn't really need a vote. This is more for us. We're a discussion group here. So, does anyone have any suggested edits on this? And this was disc uh was distributed to all members of the committee in soft
copy last week. So this is the same same. Yeah. I think there was one thing I think I had fire station floor. I think I made it should be fire station improvements. So it's updated in the printed copy. I noticed that. So it's not specific. No, it's not. No, the floor was last year. It was
a copy paste from something. So, but these are all related to the articles. It's roofing. Yes. Yep. Yep. And then article 15 is the 400,000 and that is to cover our full assess share
of the education assessments um that are combined assessments from Triton, Whittier and Essex North um agricultural and technical school. in order to pay for all of the town services given the um uh environment of
vast uh inflation. Most of the things at the town level are costing more than they did last year to provide the same levels of services. In particular, insurance has gone up. Our um assessment for uh retirement has gone up significantly. So this requires in order
to maintain all town services and um pay for the education uh we are seeking a override. The amount will be 400,000 and that will be uh the reminder is that article 15 is
the approval of town meeting to spend the money. It's a two-step. The other step is at the ballot on May 13th. It has to pass there as well because that is how you get a town votes to allow us
to exceed our tax levy capacity under proposition 2 and a half. Do we know if the 400,000 would be on the ballot? It in past years it hasn't based on um based on town council and bond council the legal language that the 400 there
usually is not an amount on there but the amount is set at town meeting. Yes. Yep. And these are the fund balances. I will again Tracy will always double check my numbers um before this letter goes into the book.
So Eric, I was just I was reading Tracy's book and the wittier regional text. So last year we had 16 students. This year we have 24. So way that's Yep. That's one of the reasons for the increased assessment is that it's all three of them and Whittier is um
Whittier's a straight percentage number of students time and they just divide it and they tell us and we don't have the same um cooperation as we do within Triton on during the budget process. So it's just a factor of number of students and each
year it varies. Y what does the project cost you? I don't know. Last year Yeah. And last year we even had we if you all remember we had to do a reserve fund transfer um last fall to cover because our assessment ended up being higher
than we knew at town meeting time last year. [Music] and all of the capital needs um have been approved by the capital planning committee. Their last meeting was last week. Last week, yes, on Thursday.
And yeah, they all of the records for capital planning should be on the capital planning uh on the website under capital planning. Yeah. But yes, we received their um list and that all of these have been through and have been approved.
Any suggested edits or changes to the letter? All right, I say we considered that done. The other part that our agenda on this is, and unfortunately we don't have the access to be able to broadcast on
the screen. Um, but the FINCOM booklet, which again was distributed in soft copy to everyone. Um, I just wanted to know if there's any edits. I have a live version if anyone wants to look on the screen here with me on my laptop, but I do have a version that I was going to make edits in real time. If there's any
any of the ration, that's really what we own in this part of it is to add to any ration that we think are lacking um or you know change in any way. Um, oh, and this also I wanted to make
sure everybody did see this. We added this in after the last meeting. The um enterprise article 10 is the ambulance enterprise free cash is um we want that's from their own free cash. That's their their surplus. That's the money that they then use to make capital
investments. Article 10 is seeking $85,000. This is to pay the second year of a seven-year lease. Tracy wanted to clarify when she she spoke um at our last meeting she thought it was 10 it's actually seven so this is year two and we have put that in the
rationale in the in for in the comlet for article 10 right I think 10 was the the length of the the last ambulance lasted 10 years yeah right that's what it was the yes the um last uh lasted 10
years this one is now a sevenyear article 15 and I apologize for not remembering this exactly but for the rationale you do have like the sort of green yellow red kind of or not even yellow just green and red um I don't but what I will show you all
is that on this one um the rationale for article 15 I'll read it aloud so everybody can see what it is Um, so this is the override and this is to support the raise and appropriate the sum of 400,000. And this is the town is already
contributing $374,486 more to school expenses in FY26 than in FY25. This article adds another $400,000 to fully fund the educational obligations. The finance committee agrees the schools need more funding and that an override is the best way to
provide for it. to pass. Both this article and ballot question must be approved by the majority of voters. If approved, the average property tax will increase by about $134 per year. Do we want to add anything to that
or change that language at all? May I ask a question? Sure. the the at the annual town meeting is I was under the article 15. Doesn't that require a 2/3 majority? It doesn't matter. Simple. No, the only ones that require 2/3 are
moving from stabilization um funds from stabilization require 2/3 and the unpaid bill requires four fifths. Yeah, this is a simple majority. Thanks. Um All right. I'll just
say I'm not sure I understand the necessity of the first sentence. Okay. Yeah. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. Like that's not that's not Chris's. No, it's very well written,
but I don't think it serves. Yeah. Can you read it again? Um, it says the town is already contributing 374,486 more to school expenses in FY26
than 25. But isn't that isn't that number sort of explaining the justification for arriving at the 400,000? No, it's it's essential. If I understand your
question, I think to me what it does is so we're on 776 over last year. Yeah. No, I know. But that's what it that's what it does in my head. If I'm just just rolling out of bed and I don't know
what's going on, I go, "Well, we're 776 over last year." That's my reaction to that. The addition of the for the fact is we support the overall. Absolutely. Regardless of whether or not uh we're we're paying a billion dollars on this,
we we sat down, thought about it, and we support the overall. So, um, and I, the reason I'm cautious about saying that is I don't want I don't want it to seem as though my attendance is somehow obiscate the obscene amount of money that things cost right now. They do. It's just how it is.
Um, but this is about the override, right? And we support the override and the override's 400k. Yes. Um just just my take attempting to look at it with fresh eyes. That's all.
Yes. And to that point, do we want anything about do we want to spell out the consequences of the amendment passing? Um I can share and this might bring about a couple of people looking at this. Um during the town
meeting there will be um this kind of the presentation that we're going to do for town meeting this year. um aiming I will tell and then we can kind of talk about this in our in our open way that we do here is that we have stuff that we can put in the in the booklet and then we also have the things that we can say at
town meeting are two different vehicles for sharing information. Um the I think the I think that thing that's going to be hard to get across in the booklet but willing to try to do it is because the trait because this is for education
overall. However, the Triton budget is the weird part in that all three towns if two of the three towns pass the budget the third town has to pay. So right
now, Newberry and Rally are looking at overrides and in both towns they have to pass at the ballot and at town meeting. Newberry is the first to vote on any of the things. We're the first town meeting. Salsbury is widely assumed
that they are going to pass because they have the money and they don't need an override. So it is everyone should kind of consider Salsbury in the check yes column. They're going to fund the education. They're going to fund trade trade.
If Newberry passes at town meeting and passes at the polls, regardless of what happens in Rally, Rally has to come up with that difference. The budget is the budget. If
Newberry doesn't pass it, but Rally does, we have to come up with that 400,000 without an override, which means that 400,000 is going to come out of today's operating budget. So, Tracy and the board and everybody is going to have to go
back and remove items from our town budget. Nice to know what those are. Yes. And that's going to be part of it is what does that look like? um which I think was was that what's Yeah. Where you extract
where do we extract that 400,000? Yeah. So there's only there's only three outcomes. Either it passes and the schools are funded or it doesn't pass but it passes in rally and we lose 400,000 in services in services or it doesn't pass in a green it doesn't pass
in rally and then the schools lose out. Right. And then just to be really clear, so the stuff that is on like all the other articles like the fire station improvement, the dump truck purchase, we can't approve those at town meeting then turn around and say no, we're not going
to. Yeah. No, that's that is not money that we can then play around with. Great. Okay. No, because and the other part of that is the idea that the so money that's in free cash, money that's in stabilization is um for one-time
expenditures. We should never and and the the and when I say this, the board of selectmen adopted the financial principles um I want to say in 2016. I have the date in here. Um but that says that we won't you we won't fund our operating budget with influxes of one
time uh onetime monies. That's what if we were to say, "Oh, let's just pull it from free cash." It's plugging a hole with something that's unsustainable. And the select board already said that should not be the way that we behave and that's not the way that we should run.
And that fits with all the financial principles. And years upon years ago, going back probably about 15 16 years now, we literally had negative free cash because we were doing that. Our bond rating was horrible. And that's how we
ended up we needed one year we needed like a believe there was like a $1.3 million override on the table just to get us back to normal. So as it stands I think our free cash number goes to whatever it is going
to go to 700k which is the lowest that's under best case scenario. So it's not like you can go fiddling around there. Yeah. So at the end of Tracy that document that she sent out the the group that did the
assessment on Newbury, they talked about how we're well structured in our financial management plan because we're not pulling money out of those those one-time accounts to pay for our operational budget. Yeah. It's like you
think of it that we don't want to ever increase add a service or add something without knowing a revenue source for it which has always been like we you know we need to make sure that we're balancing and that operating budget needs to be something that's sustainable
and the that's why this year in past years um we've been able to squeeze the budget in order to afford the education. Last year we had an eight we had close to an $800,000 increase in education last year
and we were able to squeeze it through the budget. This year we don't have that room. There's just not that wiggle room. Last year we the we were the largest increase. We had we had the largest increase of any of them last year and this year we're in the middle. Um Rally
is facing the biggest um increase um because of their minimum local contribution is largely driving that. So the the booklet itself just banks the positive case for the for the override and then the pres at the presentation time meeting that's when we do the
weather scenarios. Yes. And if you want to here we can all pass this. So take a look. This is the first slide. So that's where right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then if you go down to the next
slide if you do the arrows might there we go. Sorry. Oh this is Yeah. Yeah, as as you know, Brett, who was here the other night, like I think was um commenting that there's a growing
movement to have people in the community at the town meetings who have not previously had any involvement civic engagement before. And I think that's I'm see I think that's h starting to happen more. So I think there's going to be a lot of people
there that know nothing about Yes. and and and that's you know have this level of um explanation there's three options. There's just three options right? Either we fund the schools or
we we don't fund the schools and the students suffer or we don't fund the schools and also we suffer because the town loses out does $400,000 worth of services the citizens are not getting. Mhm. What it comes down to. Yes. Or $400,000 of or the school. It's more
than $400,000 if the budget doesn't pass the school and it's a like a rally and then it's a problem. I mean I think we can I think Newberry itself can show that we are supporting education by passing this at town meeting. That is a signal to the other
communities that we are in we are on the right path to do that. So um yes I believe that that's definitely good to be first. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to be first on this one. Yeah. So, um because then we know what's
happening. But it it shows the importance of looking at alternative revenue sources, which I think that that plays into the um the short-term rentals. It it sets us up to have an revenue source that is not beholden to
taxpayers, but to those individuals that are renting Airbnbs, BBOs's um within our community. So that's a new tax uh revenue source but not placed right on residents directly. The other one is um the meals tax which was enacted last
year has been an additional revenue source. Um and then I think it also is I think the PEG is another place where we have another opportunity for additional revenue. So quick
question why isn't the $400,000 in the $12.8 million education budget. If it's for the schools and the education budget is 12.8, why wasn't $400,000 added to that
budget? I believe the budget is prepared, and this is a question for Tracy. Um the budget was prepared assuming that is passing. But there's three separate budgets for the three
schools. The sum of those three schools adds up to 400. Why wouldn't each of the three schools put in what they really wanted? Why is this is a little backwards to me. I'm just looking for an explanation. I would imagine people at town meeting would be asking the same
question. It's to fund our because our education and our line item in our budget when you wrap it together, it's all education and it's the it's not that one of these has pushed us over. All of them have seen an increase. So it's not we I mean and
again the board selectman just chooses what to put on the warrant and they chose as an education override to fully fund the education. So do we think we need to add anything to the booklet or to the presentation? Go ahead.
I had nothing. I I just think the more data visualization the better. Yeah. Because particularly if said like you got a bunch of people who work which is great. It's awesome. Yeah. But like data visualization makes life easier. Yeah.
Just it helps things move along more to me. So and we actually have technology to be able Yes. I'm curious to see what the setup's going to be like in the auditorium and what the projections are. It's going to be in the gym. It's going
to be the Oh, right. the gym. Yeah, I remember what it is. Yeah, that's where I'm about to I need to see what it's going to look like for the gym. In the gym. It's going to be in the gym because there's set up there. Play going on. So, we can't use the auditorium, which is why we had to because it was also set
during school vacation week and they wanted to make sure that as many residents as possible could attend and knowing that school vacation week is a challenging time. But again, Gordis Lechman sets the dates, not us. So, anyone who's mad about the dates, not us, we just go with it. I think it was
an availability of the auditorium for the plug. So, that's why they were going to do it the vacation week and then they everybody said, "No, we're not going to be here." So, right. graduations. They I mean, if they do the chairs like the full Oh, yeah. There's plenty of room. There's plenty of room. You don't have
to have too many people in the bleachers. Hard to sit in. The parking is there's enough parking. There's more parking there than at NES, right? People be able to come in. So, do we think we need the line um saying how much more we're already paying that
entry line in or do we want to strike that? I'm I'm for striking it, too. Just a positive case. So, all right. All right. That's not That's a good idea. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I think awesome. That changes. I
think to your point, we had the president of the PTA here last week, right? Saying, "I'm going to have all these Yeah. the Rowley PTA is going to babysit for them. So, you're going to have a lot of people that normally don't have." Yeah. There I mean, anecdotally, I know
many, but I think Yeah. I think people in the yes who traditionally have not had a lot of civic engagement um being more especially basically because of this issue in many in many cases yes
and I think it's uh great for residents who have a vested interest we all have a vested interest in our education system and those individuals with children in the district have an even you know more important responsibility and I know that
it's not easy But it's I will say it every year. It's the night to skip soccer, baseball, whatever. It's okay. Your kids education and your involvement. And bring the kids. They're welcome. They're absolutely welcome.
Annie's been going since before she could read. Like she literally would sit there with crayons to make it through this. So it's they're welcome. They're part of our city and are part of our town and they are part of this conversation.
So, um the So, that's that one. The only other one that I thought would be um that I wanted to kind of call attention to if you all haven't seen it yet
um is the rationale around PEG and from last year just the from last year article 18 right that was that is article 18 this year and Last year it the same thing was
on last year there's always two there well there's always one article related to PEG which is to appropriate the money and this year that is article seven I believe right this is 65 years 65
article I think I know these off the top of my head. By the time we get to town meeting, I will. Article seven. Article seven. All right. So, article seven is going to seek to appropriate $65,181 from the receipt. So, the money brought in. Yeah. Um, and actually this
would be uh interesting if you guys want to change the rationale on this at all, but um the rationale right now for article 7 is this appropriation funds the town's media operation including wages, equipment, and various other costs associated with the cable access
programming. The current balance in the PEG access special revenue fund is 1 million153,910. The other pieces of information is that over the past five years um we have averaged in
revenues for PEG we over the last five years are revenues the amount of revenue brought in by this to the town is $173,000 per year. Over the same period we are averaging 85k per year in expenses.
So we are accumulating a surplus of $88,000 a year that is going into an account and sitting. So over the last five years we've we've put together a surplus there's a surplus of $441,000 over the past five years and
we've been accumulated for 14 years. Yes. The reality is that the funds we can't be effectively used and um so that's how we've arrived at that one point $5 million balance.
So that's so I'm wondering if we should put include any of that on the rationale for article um article 7. I think the more detail is better. Okay. Absolutely. All right. I can add that language into the rationale for article 7. Um because I think that helps like that was the one
that like as soon as I thought about that this year I was like like every year we're adding $85,000 and we're and that is money that once it comes into the town coffers it doesn't matter who paid for it. it comes in. It was negotiated on behalf of the town again
looking for a revenue source and that was a revenue source that was established and I think that so that's for we can add that into seven um and then for 17
um and I can share the this 18 sorry 18 um So this is and I'll share this slide, but I'll talk through a few here. But the original plans, the funds were originally set aside for a 501c3 PEG takeover or production studio. So that's that was a very
well-intentioned original plan for this money. That's why town meeting voted it to put it into a special fund. However, over the remaining years since then, there's been no organization or group of individuals come forward to take on the
PEG operations. We use the funds to fund what we do today and it pays for itself yet we're we can't spend enough of it every year. We there's not enough to generate it. So the current balance is that
1.15 million. So article the article to revoke it is to revoke the fund, move money to the general fund which means it will move to free cash. It will not change how we do PEG operations today. They will still be done the same way. We
will still fund it the same way, but it will now be part of the annual operating budget. So they they won't be a special article anymore because it'll be part of the general fund. And that additional that surplus every year that that
surplus every year can go into other things like our town services, our education, like it becomes part of that non- tax levy part of our receipts. Right. Right. And that would start in fiscal year 20 next year. It would start it would start
start in 27. Yeah. Which means as we're preparing a budget next year, we are going to prepare we prepared the budget with an extra already baked in an extra $88,000 approximately. Right. It's not available in this year's budget. No. No.
Make sure there's that money. What? Uh I don't know. You're useful enough because I bet you it's it's Yeah. The point is like I bet you it's I bet you it's sub probably. So I ask
you taxpayer your capital is not even keeping pace with inflation. It is dying. You might as well be burning that could actually be put to use today, right?
Yeah. Because I I remember the thing about town accounts. Towns are like such a scam. Someone's making fortune. That's not us. So that is the I'm just trying to see back to what they
So thinking back to then article 7. So the the um that has to be really the setup to article 18 thinking it through because um to your point about more people showing up sticking around for article
there should be reference to the later article to come somehow I think that okay just so that people you know people have heard that about that this and then they don't they think they'll miss it and they but putting that that 1.15
million number in art in the language around explaining article 7 will say okay right later on we need to vote to move that money essentially yes why Why why is this the order of things? Uh
I mean is there any I know that the um I know that uh it the ch the order did change from when we had the first review of the warrant um to move all of the financial articles
up to the front and then go to the bylaw changes. Yep. So the I think 17 is the 17 is the um short-term rentals. So that's a financial and then PEG is the last one of financials at 18 and then it
goes into bylaws. And again that's something that for Yes. Yeah. It's gonna Yeah. So here's the language I was going to add to it. Um so this is I gave you the appropriate the first
language and then we can add this to it. Um uh the current balance is uh 1.15300910. It should be noted that the PEG revenue has averaged $173,000 over the past five years.
Expenses over the same time have averaged $85,000 per year. Meaning that there is an 8 88k surplus each year on average that is unable to be spent under the current
conditions. I would say unable to be put to work. Yes. Multiple years of this surplus accumulation has led to the current PEG special revenue fund balance of 1.15 million. Article
18 seeks to change this moving forward and then people can read and they can look at the rationale on 18. Yeah. So the rational on 18 [Music]
is okay. This one has a long r. Okay. 18. In October of 2015, the town voted to accept the provisions of chapter 44, section 58, sections five, four, three of the Massachusetts general laws to establish
a PEG access and cable related fund as a special revenue account effective for fiscal year 2016. Prior to that, all fees collected by customer from customers by cable companies were deposited directly into the town's general fund.
The funds were segregated in the hopes that a 501c3 may be interested in taking over the public educational and government PEG programming operations and the funds would be available for their use. In addition, we had hoped to
build a new production studio when a new town hall was constructed. To date, there has been no demonstrated interest from any citizens or organization to undertake such an effort. There is a balance of 1.1 1 million153,910 in the special revenue
fund. If revoked, these funds would be closed out to the count's general fund to later be certified as free cash. These funds could be committed in the future to defer defer the increasing costs of education funding or other town operations.
PEG operation will remain the same as it is today and the funding of this operation would appear as part of the line I line item budget annually operating budget. Yeah, it's good. I'm glad it has a 2016 date in there, too. It's 10 years.
Reinforces a lot. It's been 10 years. And it's really effective whenever Alicia um explains like her personal involvement in the creation of this. Um yeah, because you know her intimate
knowledge of it, but then also like demonstrating that, you know, as she's supporting. Yeah. Yeah. Times have changed, right? Yeah. Erica, question.
This money comes from Comcast and it's the Comcast people pay in, not necessarily all the taxpayers. So, there's an unequal distribution once the town negotiated with Comcast. Just like so if you do a renovation on
your house and you pay a special permit fee. I'm I'm addressing this that would the town be better off to tell Comcast not to charge their subscribers this $170,000 and it would come out of the
taxpayers equally distributed. So a guy who owns a $5 million house is going to pay a chunk of money in his taxes. He's only paying Comcast $200 a month. A guy who owns a $200,000 house, he's going to pay considerably less in real estate
taxes. He's still paying $200 to Comcast. So, there's an unequal distribution. Again, if the town wasn't collecting this, then it wouldn't be a problem. We get it out of the tax collection. It's not a tax collection. It's it's a special it's it's fees collected by Comcast that were
negotiated in behalf of all residents to allow Comcast to come into here. So, I don't think we want to say let's walk away from $173,000 worth of revenue that people can choose or not to have Comcast. There are alternatives. You don't have to do
it. It's not a tax because it's not a required service. So, it's money when it as soon as it comes from Comcast to here, it has nothing to do with where it came from. It's it's now part of it's
now becomes town asset, not who paid it. As soon as you make the decision to have Comcast, Comcast is telling you that that's the fee. This was done on behalf of the town to do something good with to
allow them to come in and it's not unusual. All the other communities do it as well. So, and it funds the PEG stuff that serves the whole town. So, getting rid of it would then the town would be on the hook for how we going to do pegs. Now we're going to have another do
$65,000 worth of pay every year. We would have to get rid of Yeah. We'd have no revenue stream to support the services we have today. We would need to take out something else in the budget in order to continue the the operations that are currently funded by this revenue stream. The revenue stream would
come out of the all the taxpayers on a much more equitable distribution than it's currently happening. But the distribution of the benefit, which is the peg that everybody benefits from, is the same for everyone. So if we get rid of the if we get rid of the revenue
that's coming in from Comcast, some people are going to see a difference, but everyone's going to see the the lack of No, everyone's going to see that $65,000 still has to be generated somewhere out of our budget. They don't have to come out of some other place in the budget. Yeah. Trying to grow this,
right? Sorry, short short-term rentals. We don't have any Yeah. without going back to taxpayers for more in their property taxes. We can't go back to them for more without overrides, which is why we're now in the position of the education override is because all of the
expenses of the town, including everybody is more expensive to deliver. Yep. So, as I understand it, Comcast pays for the that's their coodb, right? Yeah. that is they pay for the privilege
to be able to come into your town. Say we're drilling for oil or whatever else, right? You're paying for come to the town. And to my knowledge, there is no line item on an Exfinity bill. That is your search charge for fees charged to I
have no idea. Someone cut the cable cord. Yeah. I I Yeah, but there isn't any line item there. It's it's that's their cost of the sustain and no one's X50 bill
will go down. No. Should that source of revenue be eliminated that would be shooting on the foot. Yeah. That would be from our position of thinking about the greater good of the entire town. This is not something we should recommend that
we disassociate this Comcast agreement. Unless you get Verizon and others that you get nothing from this, right? I should change um legislation somewhere that it's
and if I were exfid as well you're paying for privilege. So, so basically if if uh this one this article on
pay it's approved just switching it back to way. Yes. For five. Yep. That's exactly what it does is it brings us back to I remember we should explain that last year. Just switch it back to the way it
was. Yes. Before we set up the uh Yeah. and not to completely rehash old things, but last year there was a motion made on the floor to postpone this vote and that did not pass. Um 98 people voted uh 213
98 to 95 to postpone it. So it did not get postponed. So then they called a vote on it and 93 people voted yes to revoke and 106 voted no for 199. will say between those two votes, 14 people
left, right? Um and since that meeting a year ago, there have been no interest that I have heard of. Dana, as a member of the select board, have you seen any citizens come forward with a plan to use the money? Um Mike Doyle came forward and requested
to be put on the agenda to form a media committee and Alicia did not oblige that. So that's what I've seen. Okay. Yeah, that's so there there has been some interest in
forming a media committee again, but it just hasn't been put on the agenda. Just to be clear, is the media committee a 501c3? Well, that's a really good question. And
um they kind of go together. I This is just Dana. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know much about forming 501s or anything like that, but in in in my what I would envision
is a 501 has to have its own committee. It has to have a chair and it has to have a board, but it doesn't have to be associated with the town. But it may it doesn't Well, it it would not be associated with the town. As a matter of fact, if we if we did a 501 and then
that money was to shift into that 501, the the the town it wouldn't be the town would have nothing to do with it. So, right. So, if so, even the operating expenses of the 501 would come out of
itself. Mhm. So if via the revenues that it gets from Comcast, if an individual or group of individuals formed a 501c3 and brought it to the town to the select board, it would take it would take a a town
meeting vote if the 501c was formed to move the paid money from where it is right now into the five into the nonprofit. Right. But that's not the same as a media committee. What's that? It's not the same media committee. It's not the same. So I can see why that's
why it hasn't moved forward is that it just came as a set up another town committee that can't use the money. They need to do the leg work to be a 501c3 in order to approach the town with a proposal. And that has not happened. I think that was Mike's intention, but it
wasn't the way it was. Well, no. No. I'm just saying it wasn't it wasn't presented probably in the correct format, but that was that was his intention. So, the two would not be mutually exclusive anyway. Correct. Excuse me. The two would not be mutually exclusive anyway. If these pass,
peg money moves. Doesn't actually go anywhere, but it moves. Yeah. Uh someone can still form a 501c3 and with town's approval money can move right to them, right? I mean, there's no there's nothing preventing that. And and if
anything, but but I think I think trying trying to the $1.1 million once it gets moved into the general fund, I think it would be a hard even a harder cell, it would be a really hard cell to yank it out of there and put it into the 501. I I don't
really see that happening. I don't see either of them happening, but that's not I mean, that's, you know, that's He said, "I I look, if somebody puts together 9501c3, it says, "Check this out. We have all this." It's up to the town people anyway. Of course.
Um, whatever the little whatever the little label is on the account that it's in, I don't think or should matter too much. I mean and again it's well the question whether it was proposed from Erica to me
was has anyone shown any interest in doing this and yes there has that's the answer to the question I think o over the past dozen or so years there's been an occasional crop up or somebody asking about something or what have you
it's just never's ever done it just it's one of those So I think it was a well-intentioned at the time and especially when you hear Alicia tell it and others who are involved it was very well-intentioned but it in the course of
the last 10 years it has not materialized and in those 10 years we can uh bring this again again up to the voters and again this is a simple majority as well. Are there any other articles that we
anybody wants to add to the language and that the add subtract in the language from the booklet? The rest of them are very standard. I've looked back to last year's and previous. I have too many binders of budgets in my um
office. Um, so I've gone back to different ones each year. Um, again that should be everything should be as it is there. And then the only item for us to
talk about is just in theory and we can decide whether or not we're going to meet again or whether we share edits. um the presentation. Um given the length of our warrant and the planning board and
bylaws, um I do know that people are going to be watching the clock. Um so aiming for informative yet shorter presentations. to that
end. Um the flow of the of the presentation right now is um an overview of just the one one thing talking about how we get to town meeting especially if there's
going to be a lot of new people as you've said is how do we get here? Why does it work this way? And that's um the select board and that goes through the select board is the one that actually sets the warrant. It's why it's called a warrant. it's to warn and then the articles are there but the motion that
is read is what we're actually voting on at town meeting. So that's there. The operating budget and what's driving the differences is the next and then just the you know kind of a operating budget 51% of it's going towards education and then the other big chunks are public
safety is 15. Um employee benefits is 10% this year. That went up by 9% over last year. Like that is really driving a lot of why we're in a crunch on our budget this year. um is our bud our budget is not in a crunch because we've
dramatically expanded services. The cost to deliver the same services is right higher. Yeah, the school employees are under 16.12% medical increase and 10.33.
They're all in the same group. So that applied to the city employees, the town employees also, right? That's where the big increase came in. the uh the auto check the auto check premium costs are honestly they're nuts. They're nuts
because that used to be why not why but that used to be like if anything the only benefit of teaching was was like the benefits are good you know like and like it is it's nuts um their out of pocket expenses are
really substantial and looking across like you know Sure, if you look at the benefit package overall, like it could be good, but you're not you're not paying a mortgage to sending kids to college and paying your health care premiums and making the
max contribution to your 403b. It's not helping, right? If there's no, you know, we had discussed the possibility of a two like a two teacher household anymore to live anywhere within range of this
town. Why? That was something else. Um, so I think it's important to note that that those people not only do these poultry pay increases that don't keep pace with their increase in healthare
costs. Uh, Brian said it was 75 or 80 80% pay. Yeah. Yeah. So, and that's not and that's I mean and if you have a family that all those premium costs and then
you pay something there's another 10k or deductibles and whatever else and it's like and they they wonder like we can't get anybody to work expected masters and they need to live in their parents attic you know to get
them to come here. Well, that's already we'll stick them there, too. Yeah. No, it's chapter 70 funding going continue to go down. So, we have to add more. Yeah. The chapter 70 money has gone up
nothing in compared to what the the expenses for running the schools is absolutely nothing. Um each year it hasn't changed at all. And it's more and more on the backs of the three towns to that. It's a continuous outpace. It
Yeah, it just every year it's it just So we have our overview of our free of our um our funds uh free cash is 2.5 million, stabilization is 330,000. Um land sales 59 close to
59,000 and reserve has 141 in it. um nothing is going to touch land sale or reserve fund. Um nothing is coming out of those. And then the only things that I was planning to kind of cover ahead of the getting into the warrant is the PEG
that we just went through. Let's talk about PEG and talk about the um article 15, the education override, right? And then just simply mention the capitals which are on article 11 and 12, which is uh 1.8 8 for free cash is article 11 and
that's fire station dump truck. Newberry elementary roof replacement last year of that and Newberry HVAC replacement last year of that and then stabilization is 250 which is firefighter gear fireart department Lucas mechanical chest device
and 200,000 for newberry elementary interior renovations and that is it. I I I think we just go with short, sweet, and then as discussions happen, um we can weigh in. Yeah, I agree.
Um, does the committee think we need to meet one more time before town meeting or are we okay circulating this presentation giving I I'm going to give Tracy the okay on the finan booklet and our letter tomorrow and then the
presentation we're all set and a couple of us can look at it. Yeah. Yep. Offline. We don't need a quorum for that. Oh, I think we're good. I think we're good. So, I think we can set our next meeting for um the day of town meeting,
which is um the 29th. So, no no meeting on No meeting on the 22nd. I don't additional um meetings. I know we've already done like I think three or three meetings on the warrant already. I think we're going
to know them by heart. You guys want to meet mom in Italy next? I am. Yeah. And I'm not I'm not here next week because I'm accompanying my daughter's robotics team to the World Championships. Nice. Where is it? Houston, Texas. Houston,
Texas. Yes. So, her little private high school is uh one of four teams in Massachusetts that is going. Good. Good. It'll be a bombing 96. It's going to be Yeah. I had to find my summer clothes cuz you know it snowed here today. So yeah, so next week I I am not available
and so we will move right to the um town meeting. Uh we'll probably have a meeting called at 6:30 just so we all arrive and if we need to talk to each other ahead of time that's why we will make sure we have a a town meeting a a fcon meeting posted so that we can engage with discussion with each other
if we have last minute things. So with that I will entertain the meeting entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor? I. Excellent.