##VIDEO ID:eUXQJhdHnDU## so let it let's uh pick off it is 7:02 and uh why don't we just start Joe at the end of the table we'll just say our name to do a roll call Joe Ellie present excellent Richard Keys present Jean case present Erica Jacobson present Frank bcti present Vanessa Rossy present all right so uh that say we have one two three four five one two three four five six people here so we have Quorum um so we are good to start the meeting it is 7:03 on January 7th 2025 uh first order of business is to review and approve meeting minutes from the 10th and October 1st both of those are attached here um but we have both of them were fairly concise move to approve the me minutes of Tuesday 10 September 2024 second um all those in favor all right and so see this was the October 10th is a joint meeting and that was one that was um that was to go over the um to go over the uh discussion on whether or not we want to Contin continue uh um pursuing an alternative assessment for TR Triton and the the vote here was we all uh the motion was made by Alicia seconded by Bill that the town Newber recommends to the DCC discontinuing the exercise or pursuit of the alternative assessment formula at this time and that was unanimous among those who are here which was three members of the select board and four members of the finance committee so whose minutes are these ours or theirs they are both oh okay so so so we have to all right so I was here you here move to approve second all those in favor all all right approved next all righty and public comment 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 bill as the member of the public here would you have anything you would like us to comment on actually yes excellent okay um at the end of town meeting we were given permission to serve up uh to the general court about the capital planning bylaw and since that's been turned back to West say it's okay and since we're setting the agenda for next week's s board meeting I was hoping that maybe we could have a couple of names um by next week to uh appoint make an appointment okay from committe from this committee yes we do have that legal ruling is that we can now that the select board May appoint two members up to two members of the finance committee to sit on the capital planning committee um and that is not in violation that by getting that law passed from town meeting and then going to um the state we are now no longer in violation of being on multiple boards and so it's a it was a longstanding practice um that we had members that that were on both because it made sense yeah so was this co-joined with the discussion about not having people who what was the other stipulation you can't receive a stien yeah you could employee could be a right would did that all go hand in hand or was this just strictly on multiple Bo absolutely separate it was just it was only it was specifically for it was just it was strictly for finance committee oh that specific that is C specific CPC and finance that two members of you can be on finance committee and be appointed by the select board to on Capital planning okay so yes um so that brought us in in line with that okay so that it okay do we have individuals who are interested in serving the commitment um it's typically monthly meetings Marshall jerson is the chair oh Marshall I'm [Laughter] out you're on sorry Marshall um and it's usually uh they he runs a very structured they have a a good process um and I believe they usually do their me I'm not sure what their schedule is anymore it's probably not as frequent in the beginning yeah it was really it was in depth because we didn't have anything resembling like a rotation right that was put in place during those early years in terms of all right well we likey a lot of police car every next number of years whatever we didn't have any of that and I think it was a little more involved at that time now I think it runs a lot more smoothly and and really the only thing that comes up that isn't or or or quite regular is if somebody says well do we really need a $107,000 10 wheeler and then they have you know somebody from DPW come in and tell you why you need $107,000 10 there there's still that plan that they're working on yeah still the plan is year 10 year I and it's really more about having a change you know in the event something comes up or change of price or whatever else or or how the roof the roof at NES is worse than we thought it was so it's not just fixing the flashing this year we got to add whatever else just it's but at least there is structure there's infrastructure in place and everything's kind of unable and there is a also part of that is that there's usually a set time of like they all of the requests have to be in usually by November one they get reviewed and then as we get closer to the setting of The you know budget priorities and everything else um there's a scoring mechanism that brings through like kind of like to kind of like evaluate each of the different priorities in terms of like immediacy cost lifespan and so there's a kind of like every project at scored so that it can be appropriately placed into prioritization they meet in sometimes in the morning too don't they I think you know when we did it it was not in the morning it wasn't okay no it when Bob got this thing I'm it was it was yeah all right okay but that that might be the case now Conor was Conor was he's no longer on that he is not anymore Bob was really instrumental in in getting he pulled that whole something resembling a plan to get and when the um when that law came into um when we were made aware of the where we were in violation that was one of the reasons that Marshall off of this committee was because of the long tenure he also um yeah Tom was a different Tom was different because he was also conable but Marshall specifically knew that this board we could replace and he could allow some continuity continuity on that board um because he' been the he had been one of the finance committee reps to the capital planning for a number of years so he had the experience to be able to lead that because otherwise it wouldn't have been um because the members of that committee were two finance committee members I think a select board member it was a way to kind of keep um keep the continuity the history and all of the hard work that have been done by Frank Bob and other members of that committee over the years to establish a good pattern and get us on the right Financial path so they made evenings yeah yeah I I I believe they did that I think I think they might do they might do some remotes as well it might be different now to really I don't yeah yeah it's really there wasn't a lot that required I'm more than happy to help if it's you would like a job commitment you would like it it gets into the nitty-gritty of like where the dollars are spent on the capital equipment and well we need TR can done we need trash done is you know do fine for me I Can't Get Right Marshall we need to vote or just he's volunteered no bill just ask I think come up with names two names no I you know someone's interested they should send an email to the select board you guys okay do I have to send an email to who Joe send an email to Al or you chair Al Vice chair do it do it to um the assistant Town Administrator and she'll put it into the agenda package whoever she is okay it's in the as a assistant if you're using the town email system just type in a and come right up okay J we'll send you an email with the I can figure it out yeah okay excellent besides Marshall who else is on that Nick oh yeah Nick and Tracy is ex official yeah yeah that's it right been one of the problems the only name Nick Nick is still on it really yeah that's one of the problems right now is that there was he lives over on Green Street yeah yeah I know who he is I interviewed him yeah is this um I don't know if you guys would is this once a month every month starting I don't no as this same as this it's it's as the needs are because yeah there's a usually a good uh lull after town meeting as I can tell you the last agenda on the web page on the website is April 2024 yeah it looks like they had meetings right before year end 2023 three consecutive meetings yeah only time there's ever really any real activity is when everybody has to get their requests in uh before April remember correctly and and then you and then there's just a sit down where you prioritize under the operating under the assumption that well maybe there isn't enough money for all of these requests so what you do a little point system 1 through five and and what's most important and those are the things get prioritized not not to discourage you but it do say they were 7 a.m. well those were back those were but that was a couple of years ago so it's yeah I think it's pretty fluid so I'm I'm more than happy to help good thank you all right very good um so um I also will let you know that I received one piece of email Communications um a while back from David Powell um but his questions were regarding the select boards agendas so it really wasn't a fincom so I didn't bother see seeing everybody on anything he had a question about who set the agenda and so I answered some questions just that you know it's not I really not the perview of this board to com on the select board's agendas or how they are set or when they are posted or anything like that that just isn't on our on our radar but other than that there have been no written or email Communications does David Ser on any on anyes at the moment I don't think so I don't think he's he did a lot but I don't think he's on any right now planning board for a long time yeah yeah I don't think he's active on any of the others um in terms of old business want to know if there's anything from DCC meetings any Recaps there sure let me go over sure so so since I actually reported last time was uh so there's been meeting 19 September 24 October and 14 November the next meeting is the 23rd of this month in rowy at 6:30 so just some general topics um so Brian said the years off to a great start heals normal again at the high school they're look they're working on a portrait of a Triton graduate he uh uploaded the district strategy it's on the website they also put in the school Improvement plans or posted um he talked went in the meeting in October he talked about the mcast that came up whether he was for or against it and then the 14th November it was after the election and so he basically said that any of the the the seniors from 2025 if they pass the mcast then they've met the the district requirements and they're going to leave it up right now leave it up to the districts to decide what the requirements are they haven't heard anything from the state so I think that's the big thing there uh they did do some repairs they reported on that that they had a uh a failing science lab uh tight tank that had to be repaired mold remediation and roof issues so they got those yeah addressed because they get some some money that came in unexpectedly and they transferred some money internally on there so um fiscal year 26 the budget discussions are going to go back to the normal process MH reported on that and over these uh few meetings they talked about future contracts the bus contract was going to be up at the end of the year um Newport just switched from Salter to coach right a manager from Salter went to work for C&J and so they got the contract so they're hoping that they'll have some competition this time so that's why you see coach busets going along so they're they're doing it's n right now right yes so um the costal units contract negotiations are ongoing so I don't know if anything's come in and healthc Care negotiations are ongoing um and then I think the everybody's interested in facilities subcommittee's been meeting so basically that's uh it consists of both school committee members and representatives from each town was formed to develop a strategic plan for repairs to the middle school high school and the event Triton was not chosen but we know that they have been chosen so and they were basically task to come up determine a cost effective Plan B was the main goal of the subcommittee alternative uh maybe cost effective enough that they become plan a so that's what they were looking at and they've been working with khabib and associates they had several meetings to look at different things they could do with Triton and then also focus on security into the building rearrange some few things that are at uh at the high school and middle school so and then the big news it's on your agenda so that been voted into the eligibility period yes I I sorry one question before we go into that um uh we I think yesterday got uh there an email about a districtwide um survey uh for just like Triton I was Triton doing I it sounds like maybe it's related to this portrait of the Triton graduate because it's asking but it's across all schools um elementary and middle and high school um I didn't know if that was discussed at all so they they discussed that they were trying to get input just to see where they can improve things yeah they want to get the feedback from the so it's a districtwide survey yes and it seems very open-ended I mean there's there's a form obviously but it's like very like open-ended information gathering um this was just for parents with current students in the Triton District yes but it's actually going to be for parents parents alumni and students okay oh interesting so I mean I didn't know if that was this there's clearly like a discovery period um that I assume is could you forward it to me sure I'm just SC I'm always curious about what the surveys look like yeah they mentioned it dur during one of the meetings but down there were so many I wanted to get the Highlights there that are here so yes so and I'm guessing on the 23rd uh that there'll be a in-depth discussion about the MS the uh eligibility period what's going to get covered and those points so that's a good one for people to attend I will not be there I will be in Las Vegas um but that's I think that that's going to be the biggest thing um kind that will help give us some structure around what that what the plan is cuz I know for a long time that's been a big kind of unknown it's still unknown but it's at least better right it's a step forward into not rather than waiting so right because they're because they're also looking at well if you get the money from the state then we're required to do certain things so some of like the science labs need to be you have to have so many square feet for a student they don't need that so they would have to expand so those are the things that they were it might cost us more to take the money so a certain contract you should have to use like that flashbacks yeah it's all GNA be um and then as I said uh there's no Town administrator's report because Tracy is was unexpectedly ill and unable to attend tonight and was not able to provide a debrief ahead of that so um other than that the only other thing I had was the discussion of the H 7242 which was the impact of the finance committee which we discussed under Bill's um request so that is all set we don't have any new business at this point in time um right now our next meetings are set to be on the 4th of February at 7 p.m. and the 4th of March at 7 p.m. I expect by the 4th of February we will have um before the February 4th meeting we should have the State numbers for um District enrollment which then will tell us our minimum our enrollment our minimum local contribution and the enrollment will then tell us what's our above minimum percentage so that's always a fun piece of information to get because until then we can't really tell exactly how much our contribution or we'll know that the budget's going up I'm guessing the budget I I just kind of have in my head that we should anticipate a 10% increase in the overall budget and then how it gets dippi up is going to be um how it impacts Newberry rally and Salsbury talking about Triton yeah that budget does have they developed the budget schedule for us yet not yet okay no not yet I was I actually ran into narissa at the orthodontist uh this morning and so we knew we are remembering that we believe it's the third week in January that we typically get the enrollment numbers from so at that point that'll be they might have it ahead of the 23rd meeting I meant the town budget Town budget y because that's also going to come off the school budget department heads have already submitted all their requests I would assume yes yeah usually we get a sneak preview of what yeah I think what might need to highlight yeah issues if I feel like um the ones that Tracy had mentioned earlier in the like just early in the process is that healthc care the health insurance premiums um are looking High Brian had mentioned that very very early budget meeting as well so those are some of those that's kind of like stuck um I don't know if we'll see any um any sort of um major changes in our payroll or adding of any roles across any of our departments whether it be Public Safety or Municipal services I think it was last January when we sat here I said to Tracy look at all the money we're going to save because of the salt [Music] right that's why that only the only budget that you can over you can overp exactly you know the other thing too is um our our um yeah we've we've thrown some money into it every year what am I thinking of um um to cover our liability op yeah op OPB yeah because that it's that's going to grow faster than we'll putting in I think oh yeah put it in we're like Sixers yeah I mean it's I mean you can't can grow like a bean but it's like it's we we we woefully unfed well everybody is that's fortunately entire state is like some some states aren't even at one or two some there are 100 kicking time bombs laying around there and that's that's one and um it's an unfunded liability and problem is it sneaks up on you because you don't realize it as you get retirements and they're coming well and as you get like police Chiefs retiring every so often um or you get whoever that builds that balloon you know and someday it's gonna go or not or they just let it sit out there you know which it which I would Advocate that's what you do because we pay as we go you know that's really what it is but it's a lot of money out there if they would bring back smoking advertising get the B come back in Social Security starts to work again it's probably all righty seeing no other business before the committee uh I would entertain a motion to adjourn I move second all right all those in favor of adjournment all excellent adjourned at 727