WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=Ugp0O2qxmtg

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: Ugp0O2qxmtg):
- 00:00:34: Pledge of Allegiance and Meeting Opening Remarks
- 00:01:45: Approval of Minutes, CPS Forms, Vendor, Payroll Vouchers
- 00:02:38: Men's Health Awareness Proclamation Reading and Vote
- 00:04:30: Extend Chevrolet Dealer Contract for Vehicle Procurement
- 00:05:55: Plymouth County Woodlot Lease Update and Extension
- 00:07:15: American Recovery Plan Act Distribution and Vote
- 00:09:39: Register of Deeds Comments on County Finances
- 00:11:48: Treasurer's Report on Fiscal Health and ARPA
- 00:16:44: Treasurer's Report: Community Assessments and MIH
- 00:21:08: FY2027 Revenue and Expense Budget Presentation Overview
- 00:24:12: FY2027 Revenue Discussion: Assessments, Fees, Grants
- 00:32:03: Water Management Bureau Program and Expansion Discussion
- 00:38:31: Review of Proposed Budget: Discussion Begins
- 00:42:31: Budget Page-by-Page Review: Commissioner's Office
- 00:45:53: Budget Page-by-Page Review: Discussion of Administrator Replacement
- 00:49:10: Budget Page-by-Page Review: Parking, Building, Extension
- 00:53:12: Budget Page-by-Page Review:Pre-Funding Retirement
- 01:05:05: Budget Page-by-Page Review: Registry, Municipal,Health, Special
- 01:07:00: Budget Approval Vote and Appreciation Remarks
- 01:08:59: Municipal Leadership Survey and Grant Opportunities Updates
- 01:10:34: County Administrator Succession Plan and Discussion
- 01:17:03: Administrator's Report: Maintenance, Website, Dredge, Grants


Part: 1

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Power clock. There are two in both. >> Uh we are all set chair. >> Okay. Very good. Uh welcome and thank you for joining us this evening for the Plymouth County Commissioners meeting. Uh please join with me for the pledge of

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>> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Okay. So, um, please be advised that

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this meeting is being recorded and broadcast lived on YouTube. The file was later served in various public access channels throughout Plymouth County for further potential rebroadcastings. Okay. First on the item, uh, do I I can entertain a motion for minutes

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acceptance for April 23rd. >> So, move second. Okay. All in favor? I >> uh motion to vote and accept and approve CPS forms uh for Van Vanderel Cruz 90-day extension temporary full-time

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emergency custodian 3-1. >> Motion approved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Okay. Motion to vote and accept and approve vendor. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Okay. A motion to vote and accept and

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approve payroll vouchers. >> So move. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Thank you. Uh men's health awareness proclamation. >> So chair uh the office received a request uh from men's health awareness

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uh health network and uh they asked uh that uh we sign this proclamation. Uh we have done this in the past. So, uh, I put it before the commissioners for your, uh, your decision. >> Okay. Do we have something to read there? I

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think Mr. Commissioner Hanley, Commissioner. >> Okay. >> Whereas men's health month is part of an ongoing international effort to educate men, boys, and their families about the importance of preventative health screenings, early detection, and healthy lifestyles. And whereas nationwide men

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have a life expectancy that is approximately 60 years shorter than that of women and experience higher rates of chronic disease including diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease, and premature mortality. And whereas men's health month provides an opportunity to recognize the mental and physical health needs of men and boys while encouraging

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fathers and caregivers to serve as positive role models to preventative care, healthy living, and help seeking behaviors. And whereas the growing epidemic of deaths of despair, including deaths related to suicide, substance use disorders, alcohol misuse, and homelessness, underscores the urgent

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need to raise awareness of unrecognized and undiagnosed depression, mental stress, and emotional distress amongst boys and men. And whereas the centerpiece of men's health month is National Men's Health Week, a special awareness period passed by Congress and signed into law on May 31st, 1994 and

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observed annually through the efforts of men's health network to build health, empathy, recognition, and understanding of the unique health needs facing men and boys. Now therefore, we the Plymouth County Commissioners do hereby proclaim June 15 through 21st, 2026 as men's

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health week in Plymouth County. >> Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Thank you. Okay. Uh vote to amend and extend Liberty Chevrolet and Colonial Municipal uh group as the the Chevrolet dealers

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for the Plymouth County uh vehicle procurement contract and one option year as per contract. Madam chair, at a regular meeting of the county commissioners holding at Plymouth on the 7th day of May 2026 AD, voted to extend the contract for the cooperative bid for public service vehicles manufactured by

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Chevrolet Motor Company and accessories and equipment as listed in the invitation for bid Chevrolet number 2023-2026 to Liberty Chevrolet Inc. 90 State Road Wakefield mass for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. One additional

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one-year extension is possible at the sole discretion of the Plymouth County Commissioners. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. at a regular meeting of the county commissioners hold Plymouth on the 7th day of May 2026 AD voted to extend the contract of the cooperative

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bid for public service vehicles manufactured by Chevrolet Motor Company and accessories and equipment is listed in the invitation bid Chevrolet 2023 20 to 2026 to Gordon Chevrolet Inc. DBA Colonial Chevrolet 11 Pilgrim Hill Road,

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Plymouth, Mass for the July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. One additional one-year extension is possible at the sole discretion of the Plymouth County Commissioners. Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> Okay, very good. Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda is um Plymouth County

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Woodlot uh lease update and possible vote on the lease. Uh, Commissioner Hanley, I know the last time uh, this was brought up, you had a few questions. Uh, how are you? >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to thank my colleagues for allowing an

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extension on this. I have had an opportunity to speak to the manager of the town of Plymouth, Derek Brandeesy. He informs me that the group has visited with them several times and they're close to uh, moving forward with bigger

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possibilities. So, at this time, I would support a one-year extension. >> Okay. Very good. Uh, do I hear a motion on that? >> Motion. Uh, second. >> Madam Chair, if the motion could be to authorize the administrator to sign and

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the treasurer to accept. >> I was just going to do >> Oh, sorry. >> That's okay. I didn't know whether to do it before or after, but yep. Okay. So, um, we have a motion and we have a second. Uh, all in favor? >> I >> I Okay. I guess uh and also I'd like to

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give the authority to Mr. Basla uh and I guess uh Treasurer O'Brien to uh accept the uh contracts and >> so moved. >> Okay. >> Second. All >> in favor? I >> thank you. Okay. Uh American Recovery

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Plan Act. Any distribution votes? >> Madam Chair, you do have one vote. Uh let me give you just a brief update. Uh, as you will recall, we received a grand sum total of 101,237,377.99

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as an ARPA allocation to Plymouth County. The commissioners uh dedicated the vast majority uh if not the significant majority of that back to the cities and towns that make up Plymouth County. And by the way, that's not a decision that was made around the country.

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a decision that was made even amongst our colleagues here and our neighboring counties. Uh some of them decided to spend it on um volunteer uh efforts or charitable organizations. Others chose to spend it on county projects, much

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neededed regional counties uh initiatives. But you folks wanted to make sure it went to the cities and towns. And I'm pleased to report that uh we have disseminated to our communities uh more than 96 million of that money. Uh I am also pleased to report that uh

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we have put out and spent uh all but 1 million147,715.70. Just leaving the assurance I'm tracking it to the penny. And I'm pleased to report that we will distribute every single one of those pennies and dollars uh by the end of the term of ARPA which

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ends on December 31st, 2026. We still have some communities that have additional applications in. We're reviewing those now with our audit formal uh to make sure that they're eligible and there will be some more to come in front of you probably in the early June time frame. But that is the

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ARPA update and then you had one ARPA vote uh for a administrative cost to Clifton Larson. >> Pursuant to the terms and conditions of the American Rescue Plan at the Ply County Commission dispersement of funds help administered through the Ply County Opera Program as follows. Clip to Mars Allen LLP $13,418.25.

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>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Very good. >> Thank you. Um before we move to the FY2027 revenue expense, I'm going to have uh register uh give his report, please. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. I would

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prefer to speak after hearing about the budget. I have not seen it yet. I assume what I submitted is included, but I don't know that as a fact. Um, couple things. I I did watch a meeting, the

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great Zoom program we have, and I saw a lot of people um talking about the health of the county. Uh, the $ 1.5 million surplus was what it was called. And I just want

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to point out that a lot of that is um from recordings at the registry of deeds. FY 25 with 458,000 plus overestimates.

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FY26 year to date with 674,000 plus over estimates um for over $1.1 million. Um,

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as we go forward, we're having difficulty running our operation and I'm going to be asking the commissioners um possibly not tonight in the future take a look at our agreement, the length

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of length of it. Um, we've already lost six staff people and it there's more to come under the agreement. And when I look at other county departments,

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commissioner's office hired two more people, treasur's office, hired another person. I understand in the budget, I haven't seen it. Extensions getting another body that we should have a conversation about it. Um because I

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don't think it's fair. And that's I'll leave it at that. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm sure the floods. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Buckley. I appreciate your comments. Uh, Treasurer O'Brien.

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>> Thank you. So, the treasur's report first, if I might. Um, as you know, we discussed uh how we're doing this this year. You get verbal updates, but now here is the written

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proof. Uh this is as of February 28th at the moment as March 31st. This is our fiscal 2026. >> Did everybody get one? Sorry. Just one >> just one >> one page. Yep. And so we do this on a

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monthly basis. Uh I usually give you a verbal update, but I know people like to actually see it, actually believe it. So, you'll recall that I reported that through February, we're up a little over 700,000 uh in projections for the year. Uh, as you heard from the register,

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we're projecting a surplus in FY26 over what was projected in deeds size of about 800,000. Uh, but I will point out that most of the surplus comes from the work on ARPA and the monies that we return from ARPA. And that's actually

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where 90% of the surplus comes from. uh you know I suppose you could argue where you're spending it from but I don't think it really matters. The simple fact of the matter is uh we had a number of projects uh that we were able to do that got funded uh through LARPA and so that

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money comes back in as a federal grant to us. Um the big news is if you look down toward unappropriated fund balance on the revenue side you'll see that we had allocated 1.825 in unreserved fund balance in this fiscal year. However,

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because of the uh work in ARPA and the other revenues that are coming in, we're not going to need to use that money. So, even when you take that money out, that's expected revenue, uh you're showing that we're tracking well above where they needed to be. The good news

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continues down on the departmental expenses. And I can't say this enough, our teams do a remarkable job of controlling, containing, and maintaining their budgets. Um people watch them. They make sure they don't overspend. Uh

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we work cohesively together as a team. I value the relationship I have with the administrator, his team, and the other department heads because it keeps us on track and makes all of us look good. We do have a little bit of an overage expected in building maintenance. There were projects and I know the administrator could get into those if

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you needed to uh that were unexpected. Uh but we of course have the resources to deal with them. Uh on the regional services department, there's a little bit of an overage on another uh project that we had. Uh again, not unexpected, but we have the resources to take care

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of them. Information technology, uh we've had to spend a little bit more in that department to keep up with some of our needs. We were so far behind. Uh so we thought that was a reasonable expense. And then in the retirement system, we dedicated an additional 220,000 as a prepayment to the

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retirement system uh to keep us uh well informed. So through February we're $770,94.30 to the good. You flip into March. This is just one sheet again. There >> Marsh looks equally as good as February.

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Um you'll see again still trending a little bit over on the uh deeds expectation overall. However, that we did have to bring those numbers down mid year last year. Uh so the fact that we're up a little bit um really means

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that we were a little closer in our first estimate than we were when we revised our estimate. Um but uh things are are trending a little bit better than expected. Uh you will notice in parking department however uh there was a a big cost that we had to uh incur

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because of technology because we brought on a lot of big groups uh including some major cities and so we had to upgrade our technology to keep pace with what they were doing and um in terms of uh our rent at 32 Belmont we're not going

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to collect the rent that we were expecting there uh but still we're not going to use our unappropriated fund balance. Long and the short of it is we are standing through March at $790,4766 to the positive. It does look as though that trended the same way through April.

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We don't get some of our bank statements until the 10th or the 15th of the month. So I can't get you to the penny which I like and you like. Um but things are looking very good into the end of fiscal 2026. This is the first time in a while although last year we didn't finish in

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the positive. This is the first time we feel very comfortable about where we sit trending into the positive and it's a a real compliment to your leadership and being fiscally responsible along the way and the decisions that have been made to put us in this position. >> Absolutely.

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>> Any questions? >> I guess none. >> Just continue on the treasures report. I will report that you know we collect uh assessments from our communities. Those assessments are due November 1st and May 1st. >> May 1st having gone by. I do have to

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report there are six communities that have not paid their assessment. I won't name them yet. However, if they haven't paid the next time, uh maybe we can name them. Uh we've reached out to them and reminded them that the first was last week. Uh and that we hope the payments are coming in. Uh but again, the vast

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majority of the communities uh meet the deadline of payment. >> Okay. Last part of my reports is on mobile integrated health. I believe >> this document just came in

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literally half an hour ago. >> I was just asked last night about this and how many people have heard about it and were raving about the results of it. Yeah, it's um it really is gone

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and again I think CD uh beyond people's wildest expectations. Um this is a summary of of the program. It goes all the way to the beginning of the history in 2021. Um

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but really points out that had Plymouth County not stepped up uh to to continue this program and to uh allow it to be operable, it might have not been able to serve uh some of the patients. If you look at page 7, for instance, from June

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2024 to May 2025, we served 1,912 patients. Think about that. That's 1,912 patients that got served in their home, didn't have to come out, go to the doctors, go to the hospital, uh, and

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were able to be treated in their home. Not surprising, 70% of those over 65. Um, these trends are are pretty fascinating. I'll let you look through them at your leisure. Uh but we anticipate that we'll get page 10th. But

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those 1,900 visits saved approximately $3.4 million um can save us from cost going to the hospital and other more expensive ways to be treated. Phase two begins on page 11. This is the extension

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that you authorize starting in December. uh and even since then uh we've seen quite a number of folks on page 13 it's rolled off by month at least 600 or 700 folks haven't seen in their

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homes uh this is a partnership with Beth Israel so not surprisingly most of them are from Plymouth but we do have patients that in other communities you'll see those calls by locations and then the savings of this part of the

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phobia uh are estimated about 1.1 billion page 17. So I just wanted you to have this at your disposal. Uh we're continuing to promote the program looking for resources and support from folks including our federal partners to

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see what we can do going into the next. >> Any questions? >> Any questions? >> No. See none. Go ahead. Um, so that's it for the Treasury, but then I give you the budget if we're up to that part of the question. yours. Um, this or do you want another

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one? >> I think I have. >> Yeah, please. What you have is toilet paper. >> Yes. >> There you go. hang up. >> Thank you.

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So, as is always the case, you have uh drafted uh proposed revenue projections for 2027 and a proposed budget. Uh that has been the work of uh a lot of folks, a lot of meetings, a lot of time and effort. Uh as I sit here and look at the

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complete package, I think you'll be very pleased with the document that is in front of me. Uh it took a lot of effort. Um we were able to provide a 2% cola for all employees. We have uh an additional and this was mentioned in long sought after

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maintenance position that has been budget for a number of years. We're excited because uh the team at continues to grow. Uh they get a number of calls. They have been asking ever since I've been here uh for the re uhation of a

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horiculturist position. Okay, you some of you have long enough to remember Deb Swanson >> who eventually got promoted to extension director. She used to be a horiculturist when we had 18 or 19 people in that department. So, bringing back this one position which they've been asking for for that long time period of time.

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>> That's been many uh 20 years ago. >> It has been since we've been able to to have one. I know they've been asking, >> right? we've been unable to do that for obvious fiscal reasons, but given the demand and and the uh increased focus on

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food sustainability. Uh it it's a very valuable position. I can tell you the community is very excited about it. Um you know how well that our entomologist has been received. Uh this I think will uh be as well if not even a little bit

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bigger received because people have more fun talking about plants than doing about bugs. That's just my take on it. We also have uh money in here for uh the renovation of the bathrooms over at 32 Belmont Street. Uh we have some money in here for it both for general IT purposes

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of the operation and then again a little bit north of parking. Um and we've added some money in here for regional services. So you know the commissioners have a number of projects that they're promoting and working on. So we put in some resources of that. We've also

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dedicated additional money to OPEP onetime monies and additional money to the uh prepaid retirement all without using any uh stabilization resources or without any sighting the assets. Um so let's go through the revenues if there

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are any questions over the overview. >> Yeah. >> Um revenues should be fairly quick assessments communities uh that can only go up by statute 2% 2 and a half%. So we're at 1 19201186.

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It's been fascinating as I've been have conversations about Plymouth County and the cost of Plymouth County. I had a a fantastic conversation with a member of our advisory board who was saying well that it's a pretty low assessment and they went and looked at assessment,

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Mark's assessment and assessment and found out ours is lowest. Ours is low because it was based on the taxual equalized valuation of homes back in the 80s and in Plymouth County they were a lot lower than they were in those other counties. So our baseline was lower than

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the other counties. Um goass took a look and asked how quickly they could join Pith County. Um registry reporting fees and deeds excise. Uh again the register and I meet to discuss these numbers. I think it was pretty easy to hit the nail

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on the head on reporting fees. Those have been pretty flatlined. So, we're keeping that a little bit trickier on these excise. That number has been growing exponentially. We had some back and forth and settled on two 65000. I won't say which one of us wanted a

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little higher, which one wanted those a little lower, but that is the art of compromise. Courthouse rent. Uh, and real kudos to uh Frank and to Tia and and BNC and the others that worked on this. Chris, I think had some involvement too. Uh the

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courthouse rent process was smoother than it's been in a while. Uh and it resulted in a a significant uh uh good result for us. Um I don't know that we have the final in yet, but uh >> that is that is the final number.

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>> Yes, sir. Um so you can see a big bump up from the year previous. >> Uh and so we're getting money back from the state and able to put that back into the courouses. >> What was what was the boost in that? I know, you know, we had been locked in for so long. what was the the big boost in that? >> So, a couple things. Uh, one, they have

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they are paying um our retirement costs for retirees from the maintenance department and uh the team particularly your administrator has done a very good job of putting projects out there and getting them done which they then have to leave. >> Is there anything else that should be

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added to that? If I could, chair, um the uh energy efficiency improvements that we've been investing in the buildings, light improvements, uh particularly heat improvements, uh we we made a major investments within the

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budget last year and as you know, that turns into next year's revenue. So, we're actually seeing the uh the returns now on these big lodge projects that we've uh completed. Not only does it uh get the buildings uh improved upon, more

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energy efficient, uh we also will pay less energy cost in the future. So it's a double win. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh municipal administration 425 another big bump. Uh Nancy

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all of my extra work on this and brings in those resources. can't tell you the number of times I told by she's dealing with a community asking about buying into this bid. I don't even know how many we have now groups that participate, but do we have a rough estimate how many

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>> for the uh well for the vehicle is uh about 225 all over New England and some as far out as Ohio >> that belong to our so they can purchase vehicles at a cheaper cheaper price. And

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then we also have the heating fuel bid. Um there's no fee for that. Um the uh the ice melts is another one that's a big we sold a lot of ice melts. Bought it in bulk and then sold it to all the different uh communities all over

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outside of Plymouth County as well. A lot of school districts and whatnot. So that's that's the bulk of that. >> As far as out to Ohio, you said >> uh not for the ice melt but for the vehicles. vehicle vehicle bid makes up most of those those fees. Um they

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there's a fee to join which is $239 a year and then we get three quarters of 1% on the vehicle sales. So, um, each dealer sends us a a monthly check >> and it's it's a nice that was a big

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thing that Frank had done about 10 11 years ago. We were never getting anything for >> No, we've really elaborated since even since I came in how you know it has really built it was a huge process all those huge books but you've done a great job. Thank you.

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>> Thank you. Federal grants and awards are monies that we get in actually from grants and awards. Uh the vast majority of that 2425 is through ARPA. Uh we continue to expect some of that into this fiscal year. Uh so a little less than we had in

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previous years, but 125,000 is a very good estimate. Regional service project GL grants, we just never know how much is going to come back from that. You can see in 2023 it's 14,000. in 2024 was 7,000 uh we didn't have any in 2025 so

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we put a placeholder of 10,000 parking department uh that is going as you know great guns uh we continue to add members I know at the next meeting there'll probably be another addition uh that the deputy treasurer will be to report to you asked if you wanted more good news I

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said they can't handle in this meeting for the next meeting >> we always want good news >> well you you'll have more I think this this budget's on good uh interest income uh in counting accounts um you know at level even though interest rates are down I

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continue to shop rates on a weekly basis uh to make sure we maximize our investments and our assets so I feel comfortable with that number tower rent uh that's the deal that we have with the company for the cell tower >> yeah in Hansen so we can say to the

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penny that's what we're supposed to get rent on the county farm is our contract with the sheriff which I think has two or three more years left in it. Granted 32 Belmont that's hard to to label. A lot of work's been done over there. Frank and I met and settled on

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15,000 as a as a kind of rough approximation. Rent from 44 Ober Street uh over at the uh parking lot there. It's 5250. Global Integrated Health Service, we're hoping for 250,000 in funding

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particularly based on the report we just got. I'm excited about that. So, we hold that as a revenue placeholder. We will then get a fee from that which revenue comes into the county. Waterman management bureau again is something we've been talking about. I know that is now under Teresa's opices and uh she's

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reaching out to team members and the communities and see what we can do to to grow that municipal health group. This is the reimbursement that we get for the operations that we run for them uh entirely with our employees. And then uh I charge an administrative fee for the

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financial services that we provide to them and the administrative support. Um I ask for increase in that as well which they certainly were more than tempted to provide. Grant administration are the other grants largely the burning grant that Frank does and some of the smaller

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things we estimate about 60. And then we're rolling the 1.825 we did not use the last fiscal year into this fiscal year. So, it just means we need to do a lot of good things and preund some of the programs that we need to preund. >> Any questions on the

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>> I do have a question. Um, can >> we go back to the uh water management bureau? Uh, what exactly is that? Is that um I know we talked about the pond management. Is that that or >> It is that. >> Okay. >> Yeah, it is that. Um, what we heard from other communities as we've reached out

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to them is that pond was a bit narrowing. uh and some communities wanted us to look at water resources as a whole and where we might be able to help them, right? So, we pretty much expand to scope, >> right? Nothing to do with like a grant from uh the federal government for what

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we had discussed yesterday uh as far as water supply water filration or anything like that. That would have to be separate grant. >> No, I am hoping what I'm bumping the communities real >> particularly those that have a number of lakes or pond there. Yep.

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>> Uh boundaries that they partner with us because then that allows us collectively to apply for grants both at the state level and at the federal level. >> When it's done individually, there's less of a chance of receiving those grants. >> If we do it on our own, less of a chance. So, we have anou that we're

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proposed to communities. It's really relatively small dollars. Uh that if they sign up with us for five years, that's the funding. Then we would hire somebody here to manage that department and to begin to tackle some of those grant applications. And a lot of it's

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communication. One of the things we found which was fascinating to me and I suppose it it makes sense. >> Lakeville uh did a had to do a pond treatment, >> right? >> When they had their flood down there, wasn't it? >> I forget exactly when, but another town

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uh more toward the coast had to do the same thing the same week. and they both paid more than they would have paid if they just known they were doing it at the same time. Could have hired one company to take care of it. So, a lot of it is just communication. If we had one central point to say, "Hey, Lake, what

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are you doing? Marshall, what are you doing? Plymouth, what are you doing?" You know, and and even just coordinating that, somebody that has the base knowledge would be helpful to those towns. You know, if your population, I forget what our bright line was and you won a presentation, but if your

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population was under 15,000, I think we were asking for 7,500 if it was over that 15,000 a year as a contribution into the program. Makes a lot of sense. Anen and Pemroke seem to be the bigger drivers. Yeah. >> Uh since they have some pretty valuable

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waterfront there. I know Halifax is interested. So, um, now that we have some staff, which we haven't had for decades, in the commissioner's office, uh, you'll be able to pursue those, I think, a little more. >> So, that's, uh, something that's done in

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the in the county itself. So, that wouldn't be something that we, uh, do as all the different counties that we work with. Uh, it would be us individually. >> This would just be done. I often times get jealous of our dear friends at Barsville County, right? because they

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have more uh deeds revenue and tax revenue that comes in. >> Um and they have a whole water department. >> Yeah. >> Uh they go out and test water for their residents and and you know provide quite a broad-based support network around water.

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>> We could get there, but we need buyin from our communities. >> Um and that's just continuing our efforts uh to show them the value ad. Uh their all their budgets are tight. I understand even asking for $5,000 is

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difficult, but I humbly believe having looked at a lot of the budgets, $5,000 for this program is so much better spent than some of the things that are good, uh, but maybe wouldn't generate the revenue or provide some of the the

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benefit that this program would provide to each of these communities. Um, you know, obviously I'm biased, but I don't see a reason not to do this. Um, some of it's just timing for towns. >> Yeah. >> Uh, and they'll have to try and put it in the budget. So, hopefully as we begin

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to talk about this now in May that they'll be able to fund something to the next fiscal year in their town meetings in the fall and the spring. >> Well, I feel too that sometimes a lot of these towns are struggling with even getting town administrators

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uh to, you know, be there and being able to apply all this that we have. Uh and it is frustrating here as we've tried to sell these things so many times before but uh they're in a difficult point right now uh and where they stand you

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know just trying to survive in their own community but we'll keep reaching out. Yeah, we try to make it as easy. You drafted the MLOU, we got feedback, so that's it's a document that's ready to go, >> right? So, >> yep, >> we'll see. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions about revenues?

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>> Just uh for you, Madam Chair, just one question. Tom, can you remind me in under rent wood lot in 24? Did we Is that the year we did something with the cell phone towers? Uh that's the year we uh we had the question about the cell

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phone towers and we extended the rent one year and got the rent from that payment in 2026. >> So are we even with our extension as of today? >> Uh we'll have then 15 with the extension it'll be 150,000 above what the original

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deal was. >> Thank you. >> Which is for FY27. >> Yep. So, the original deal ended June and we received all our monies. >> It ended June 30th this year. >> Yeah. >> And then with the one-year extension, we'll have that uh one more year or one

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more year of revenue. >> And Frank, did I remember that correctly? In 2024, >> showing zero for actual. >> Yeah. if um because uh if you recall exactly as you said, we needed to go back to them uh and uh renegotiate

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the uh term so that we could we had kept Verizon Tower on on the lease and we extended that a year, right? >> And they uh we got the full amount, but they shifted it from year three to year four. So they got one additional year already. >> Okay.

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>> Uh in the in the lease, but that's why it was zero. So we uh I think it's uh was 200 150 100 this year end of the original. Now the extension will be 150.

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>> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. >> All right. So let's go to the budget itself. I was reminded by the deputy that we have a table of contents there for you to look at. Uh we'll just start right with the front page. We'll go down those

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items and then we can get into detail as there may be questions. Once again, I think it behooves us to remind our constituency that we have no debt. We paid off all our debt. We are debt free, >> right? >> Um and that's that that's something that impacts our communities because they

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have to report under Gazby 74 and 75 and in some of their audits, how much what portion of the county debt do they owe? We now say you owe 2.34% of zero. Uh so um they're always surprised. You mean the county has no debt? No, the county

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has no debt. >> Uh the commissioner's office um you'll see and we'll go through this uh modest reduction because our administrator has given us the very sad distressing and heartbreaking news that he will be leaving us and time certain uh and so

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the new hire will be hiring at most likely a lower salary. Parking department that increases for you saw it on the revenue side. uh monies for um technology in case we have to upgrade to keep some of our bigger clients happy.

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Building maintenance uh that includes um 200,000 for the bathrooms at 32 Belmont which I mentioned in the opening and we'll point that to you if you need to. Engineering department is appraisals and engineering work that may or may not need to be done. Some we do it, some we

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don't. cooperative extension, you do see some growth, but again, this is still so much lower than it was even 15 years ago. Um, I think you'll want to look at uh this department uh as an opportunity

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particularly as agriculture becomes a big deal around here. Um, but we we have some modest uh returns back to that department. uh contractual expenses. Uh most of the increases there are in insurance. Uh we

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go through that line by line by item as we need to. Insurance is not cheap. Global integrated health, that's dollar, dollar out, so we're hoping for a 250 grant. We will then spend 250. If we get 180, we'll spend 180. Uh fire control, we may need to change that name, but uh

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it's uh for uh fire classroom training and the like. You've had 30,000 in for 26. We thought to do that again in 27. Regional services department uh is a bit of a decrease. We that money in there

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was for the radio communications for uh the fire departments and for the chiefs of Cliff County. Uh we spent uh I think over $450,000 on that. Uh so we don't need to spend that this year. Um county dredge dollar in dollar out. Water management bureau same thing dollar in

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dollar out. information technology. We mentioned that not only does park need to do some things, we need to do some things. Uh and there's a federal statute that is requiring disability compliance. That will cost some money. So, we're anticipating that cost. Treasurer's

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office, uh a little bit of a decrease because, as you know, one of my employees retired and we hired somebody at a lower salary. Um county retirement system that increases because we're preunding. You'll see that when we get to that page. liability. We're able to

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put an additional 225,000 into that registry of deeds. Uh budget was the budget requested by the register. I'm sure he's gone through I can see that Mayflower group 600,000 that's to cover their cost. You'll see that on the revenue side and then

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special accounts an increase in that is predominantly health insurance although again we we anticipate these increases. You folks have known about it since 2014. you plan for it. So, not a surprise. We knew this was coming. We put it in our budget. We covered the cost.

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>> Um, do we want to go through each page by page? >> If we may. >> Yeah. >> Madam Chair, I don't know if it's appropriate at this time. >> Um, Mr. Treasurer, as far as um the commissioner's office, you have a reduction. Is it appropriate for me to

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make a motion to level fund from available funds? uh only because I understand later in the evening we're going to be talking about uh a posting for the administrator's position and I would prefer to level fund as opposed to

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pre predict a dropped in in that line item. I'm guessing that's salaries that you alluded to and why it was reduced. >> Yeah. Yeah. So if we want to turn page eight page naming, you can see uh the

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anticipated situation there. Um again, this is Frank. >> Um if I could, that the biggest uh reason for the draw is that we're not going to have three people in the administrator slot. we won't have the administrator, the administrator on

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training and the um assistant county uh the assistant county administrator. That's the reason for the drop. If you see, we actually did level fund uh my uh the administrator's salary, but because

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um in 25 we had that uh original county assistant uh county administrator salary for the whole year and then we added the extra funds on top of that. That's why it seems like it was a lot more money once we strip out from three to two positions. Um I'll be here through

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August 31st. uh and then uh as you see it is uh funded forward uh in that level. >> So without getting into the agenda item I was just curious. So for a period of time we will have all of those positions available. Correct.

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>> Now through August 31st >> and then whenever we decide to hire an administrator, you're still going to be on the books for that period of time. So shouldn't we at least carry the same number if there's breakage? you know, so there's going to be decisions made when

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they're going to be made. I don't know, but at some point you're going to have to >> if it goes beyond July one, you're going to have to account for. So does it make sense to reduce it because we can always return it? >> The the breakage uh will should uh by calculation take care of it. Uh we also

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have the salary of reserve line item and the special accounts specifically for this kind of issue. Okay. So if the salary that is is chosen uh I have well we have a recommendation after we talked with the chair uh if that's the salary chosen will be fine within the line item

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when you do the math. >> Okay. >> Uh but that's up to the commissioner's vote. >> Okay. >> So it's your recommendation to not level fund. Just keep it is because you got it covered in the budget. >> We will have it covered uh within the budget for everything that we planned.

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uh three of us through August 31st and then two of the team going forward. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. >> Would that be that would be three people? So, um will we have a uh the date set up of when we were hiring? Was

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that July 1st when we would have uh the hire? >> That that that's a calendar that we're going to talk about uh that we uh we drafted with the chair uh and of course pending the commissioner's vote. But

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that uh is our our hope hoped upon schedule for hiring. That will give um a hiring date of July 1 means probably August one for a start date. Um you know by the time you uh people that

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are off actually chosen um go into selection and then have to give notice. A lot of uh if this person's in a municipal executive position, a lot of contracts already list 30, 60. If you recall, Teresa had a 90-day notification

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on her uh on her resignation. Uh she negotiated it down to 60, but that's why it took so long from October to December for her to join us. And a lot of executives that have contracts will be in that same boat. >> And you have a hard stop on your date of

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retirement, correct? August 31st is >> Well, I didn't want to say that. You said it, so I'm not I just was >> several times >> to your point. I mean, are we allowing enough um time for transition? If you're you

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leave on the 31st and we hire on the first, notwithstanding, you know, I guess that would be a consideration on hiring. You know, if we're promoting internally, you know, that's one thing. You know, if we're not and we're going outside, then that's another. So, I don't know what you'd be available for.

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You know, maybe you could be brought back on a consultant basis if that's the case, but you know, >> my phone will always be answered by, you know, if I see Plymouth County. Um the uh that was the whole basis behind the

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strategy that the hiring subcommittee from the ACA suggestion the ACA trainer and and uh uh uh administrator and training position was that we've worked together. Now it'll it'll

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be it would be nine months that I'd be working with the administrator on training and and then the assistant county administrator it would be six months or eight seven months. So there would be a pretty seamless break. Now, if if the administrator in training who

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the original search committee thought would be taking the job, if the strategy is changed or the decision is changed or not voted by the commissioners, then yes, we're in the same boat that every other um town or or city is in when an

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administrator leaves with effectively uh 45day, 60-day notice. Um, and that wasn't my intent. My intent was to set the county up for success long term and that's what we >> Yeah, we can get into it more during the next discussion. I just was curious on

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level funding where we stood. Um you have explained it. So thank you. >> And uh the administrator stole my thought. I got a little bit ahead too, but I'm glad he mentioned the salary reserve. We understand there are things that may occur throughout the year. We've had individual discussions with

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each of you so that has been addressed. Um, commissioner's office. Any other questions about that? >> Okay. Uh, parking department. I think this is the easiest questions about the parking department. They're all fairly straightforward. You

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see the increases in 277 uh software. Not a lot of uh salary in that department. Building maintenance. Again, fairly straightforward. If you're looking for money or bathrooms, that would be in the

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600 on 15. Salaries are all listed there. You can see the vacant position down at the bottom 2000. Engineering department again straightforward appraisal and engineering service landing with the

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cooperative extension service. This is where uh this year there are some investments being made. Uh you'll see you know the reposition on page 22. Um and they have they've suffered more cuts

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than others in other parts of their budget. Uh in their meetings they made very compelling cases about you know how much they had for stationery the the things that they use um and their educational materials. Um, you know, I just can't believe what they've been

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doing with so we were able to bump up some of those line items as well. >> Yes. >> And, uh, additional, uh, costs that were unforeseen in those line items included the changeover, which we'll talk about a little bit later from their old website to the new county website to fall under

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our county website. So, all their materials had to be reddrafted and reprinted uh, to include the new uh, website and information. So that's why a lot of that was added. >> Uh contractual expenses on page 24. This

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is always something to pay attention to. As I mentioned, a lot of it is our liability insurance. I think every town is experiencing significant increases. You may notice the switch from comprehensive building insurance and general liability insurance. It turned out our building insurance was more

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expensive than our general liability. So we've reallocated those. We going to be purchasing some cyber security insurance as well and then um we've added a miscellaneous insurance um for directors and officers insurance.

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>> Can I ask a question for you, Madam Chair? >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Uh earlier you noted um the revenue for the the county farm and my understanding Frank when we set up that rent it was to cover the insurance. Is the insurance in

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this line or these several that you just named covering? >> Yes. >> So, the rent covers our cost to ensure >> it does, but I'll turn to the administrator real. >> Yeah, the total cost is about $4,500 per year. >> Okay. >> And so, we are covering. Yeah. Make sure.

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>> Thank you. >> Uh, mobile integrated health again is just putting in the line item as we would probably extend the contract we have. We could do that. uh with mass money if we continue for another year.

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Uh fire control, $30,000, not uh a lot, but they appreciate it. Regional services department. Um this is where we're adding some resources if the measures have an initiative. That would be the 239 line item. You see it right

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there on page 30. County dredge dollar in dollar out. Water management bureau. You know, we just allocated some monies in there to see. Uh we're not sure what the cost would be. Um we actually expended money in 2025 to drop up theou for the cities

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and towns city information technology. Again I explained that we would have an increase in contractual services because of the cost of uh some other things we're doing and we have need to use county treasurer's office. Again, um fairly

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straightforward, not a lot of increases and a modest decrease because of the position change from a uh senior member to a newer member. OPE have a liabil kind of retirement system. And again,

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we've been out talking about the retirement system and the fact that we're going to be fully funded by 2032. you folks anticipated the increased cost that was going to come and have preunded since 2014 our

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obligations. So you can see back in 2023 and I'm glad this is still there. Our retirement cost was $3 million. Had you not preunded that would grow by 8% each year >> through 2032. And that's what our communities and you've heard this are

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facing. They didn't preund. They I think were caught unawares and so all of a sudden they're saying well now we have this increase. Well the increase was coming. You knew it was coming. There were things that could or could not have been done. So you folks have done it and you've consistently done it. In 2025 you

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had resources available and you dedicated it with $3 million. And this year we're going to put in another $325,000. All of which means that for fiscal 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32, your number is going to be going down instead of going up.

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>> That's unbelievable. >> It is. It is. It's the power of compounding interest and investment interest and fun. And again, humbly, I I would suggest and we we we certainly have tried to get the message out uh and

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Mr. Hanley has doing a little bit of the tour, too. There's no better place to preund than retirement, >> right? >> Because of our return on our investment than the Bobby that we have at 7.875, you know, just it's an incredible value

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to do that. And so, you know, it's a way to contain the cost to address the issue and and to deal with it. Now, I had a very interesting conversation with a community and they're talking about even preunding now. And I said, "Absolutely. We'll we'll still work through um if you have a legal settlement or some money's

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coming in, um you know, we just got $1,000 settlement." You know, some towns might not think, but those are the kind of things for refunding your benefit. Um so anyway, >> this has been at least 12 years that we've been telling them to, you know,

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prepay, get ready for it. And uh since you know 2014 >> we have done a lot of conversations with a lot of folks. Um but it's hard and and believe me I get it. It's it is it is not easy to be thinking that far ahead.

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Um and people change. And I don't think the selection that are in today, very few of them were there in 201, >> right? >> Um and so I get it. But and I do I'm excited because one of the lessons being gained here is that a lot of towns are

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drafting five and 10 year plans and saying, "Oh, okay. If I hire somebody now, I've got to plan for that cost for the remainder of the hiring and I've got to budget that. It's not just the person's salary, it's their health insurance and their retirement." And that's why again you folks have gone

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through some fool years and I know department heads have been frustrated that you know hiring freezes and the like but the benefit of that was you were able to contain these costs >> right >> so those concerns are off the table for us >> so um registry op liability sorry

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we're going to add in another 225,000 above what you've been paying you had a note here I I just want you to know how much you've reduced your liabilities. So about 12 years ago, your op liability

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for the county was $32 million. Today it's $16 million. And that's by funding through peacock getting the returns we've been getting and consistently funding not huge amount of money you know 175 175 but you had money for 2025

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we put an extra million in it with respect to our retirement I know that right as this uh a number of years ago 36 million is 9 million today >> wow >> the total county obligation for

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retirement of our employees including by health cost We did that a number of years ago is $9 million. >> So again, I just can't stress enough. I know it's frustrating sometimes and I know people get frustrated that, you know, we haven't been able to grow

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departments to do things. This is the benefit of it. Uh we're in a position to now help our towns and to do regional projects because we've taken those fiscally responsible steps. repeats >> treasure. Are they is there still a lot

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out there trying to uh extend and put it out further or are they becoming through you know the realization that you know it just has to be addressed and they have to do something about it or you know they still looking to extend it out. >> It's interesting

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>> which makes no sense. >> It it oftenimes doesn't I would say of our 52 member units the vast majority of them haven't weighed in. They understand that there is a good program. They're looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. They're kind of hoping we keep

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pace, but they're largely silent. We have a handful uh that have been very vocal and saying they don't want the funding schedule extended. They have planned for this. They want it paid down. And then we have another handful that is still insisting on extending the

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so I would say 55 and then 42 in the middle. What is the percentage in savings if they, you know, keep with the um the way it's going now? >> Well, by 20 the real benefit is in 2032, fiscal 2022, their retirement cost goes

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down 67%. >> Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. >> And so again, I show shared with you uh town of situ took a vote by the board of selectment asking the retirement association to extend the function 50. >> You want this? Now, it was interesting

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because I did have an inquiry that said, "Well, we know you can't extend the funding services just for one, but those communities that don't want it extended, why don't you extend it for others and let those communities preund on their own?" Right? If they're planning for it, let them preundle.

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But the challenge with that is that maintaining the discipline of a uh valuation report is harder if you pull away that guard rail. And so that's why I think the town took that vote. They want that guard rail in place. They want

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their citizens reminded that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if we keep this. And if we take it away, there'll be a lot of folks that may ask to ignore the guardrail um because it won't be in place any longer, which is why it's a very thoughtful decision that

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the retirement association makes with respect to when the funding schedule is to be finished. Um and it's interesting because we have extended it a number of times um when there have been fiscal crisis and when our communities are in

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really dire. Um so I think it's going to be an ongoing discussion. It's unfortunate because I think some people are are uh have made up their mind. >> Um but we're always willing to go out uh and have those conversations, show them

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uh the challenges, the downsides. Um the upside is obvious. You save a little money on the front end if you would. One of the things I found that is instructive is the rating agencies have indicated extension of the funding table has an impact on the ratings of these communities.

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>> Um so another reason doesn't want us to extend the ratings may impact the bond. >> Right. So, um, >> would it be would it be helpful to do like a draft uh for each town to show them, you know, the reduction over the

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next five years? Uh, so they could see, you know, where they would be if they put X amount of money in and work towards I know I mean I mean this is like being a dead horse down. that's, you know, been told over and over. But I just sometimes I think with new people

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coming in, new administrators and, you know, they just don't get the concept of um what really needs to be done. I think sometimes a draft even, you know, some of the things that we pass out, you know, what we've done with the APA money is how much they actually got. Most people don't even know what they got. Uh so I don't know if a draft would help or

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>> challenge with that is >> challenge with that is a lot. You have to you have to figure out what the assumptions are going into that. They're different for every community. And we've always said if we want to do it, you could do it. So, >> right. >> It doesn't cost you get it done for $5,000.

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>> It doesn't make sense for us in the county to do that for our 27 communities. That's money that I don't know that we should spend. Vise against that. And the retirement association does that collectively every two years. >> Yeah. >> So, you know, we do do it for our

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communities. If a community wanted to run these numbers out, do it. You folks did. In 2014, we allocated $7,500 to have our actuary meet with me, create the assumptions of the deputy treasurer and create scenario one, two, three, and four.

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And we went and we said, "Okay, here are the assumptions. We're going to plug in these assumptions. Here's what we're expecting for growth. Here's what we're expecting for cost." And it's amazing how fairly close those were. I'll take credit for all the ones that were read the ones that weren't. But I'd say we

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got 75% of it right. Think of that 12 years ago. >> Yeah. >> Within hundreds of thousands of dollars. Um so nothing prevents a community from doing that. I don't I don't know that that's for us to do. What I can do is show them how it's done. I'm having to

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go in and say this is the kind of thing you're looking at. These are some realistic assumptions based on what we see regionally. But, you know, they really they just need to kind of take ownership of that on their own. And I've also found when we do it for them, they still are suspicious suspicious of it.

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>> Well, those are your numbers. They're not, but we understand we did them for you. >> It's fascinating when you go with a valuation report. It's done by an actuary and I still get 10 or 12 calls. Well, these numbers can't be right. >> I'm sorry. I never got a degree in

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actuarial science, but I'm going to take their word for it. we paid them, you know, $50,000 to produce this report. I'm fairly certain it's accurate or more accurate than anything I've ever did. >> In response to that, didn't you um give us a timeline that you are close to that

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two-year period anyway? So, that might be September, October of this year. >> Oh, I think it'll be before that. >> So, I mean, >> July, August, >> timing wise. Yeah. >> That's what we tried to say to communities. When we got started getting those letters, they were a little premature. We're in that process anyway,

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you know, and we'll let them know. I think the first meeting we'll be having is June. We're going to invite people to come and sit and listen. It's riveting, you know, it's four hours of an actual meeting. Um, >> but you know, the the numbers are the numbers.

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>> Just amazing that we went from what 32 million and we're down to nine 9 million now. It's incredible. >> Y and that's that's the payments. >> Yep. 85% >> right >> registry of deeds. I don't know if

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register has had a chance to Google it, but again, this is what he had sent to us and I thought we had reviewed it in in good order and then they found municipal health group sat that and the numbers match that they were willing to pay for us special

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accounts on the last page always one of our more interesting ones. You'll see in the reserve salary just says the administrative school last we budgeted 75,000. Thank you, Mr. Administrator. And then uh we do have a reserve for buyback um

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because we do anticipate every time maybe coming up. Um Plymouth County Development Council, we had the ability to grow that $5,000. So we saw fit to do that. I know that's something all you have been interested in. Human services is social community action council. Uh

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group insurance is health insurance. Um, while there was a 10% decrease in cost uh here, that's less than the 15 to 20% national, I just read a huge article about how it's going to be 18% each of the next three years. And our goal, we

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keep it 10 and less. Um, and then firefighter training, we've we've allocated fairly consistently $10,000. Uh, we're not putting any more money in stabilization or any more money in capital improvements in this budget. Um, but that's because we dedicated them to other onetime expenses.

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So again, this is a I've been excited about this because some of the fiscal constraints we've had uh we've been able to to reap the benefits of great fiscal discipline. There's a department that has been woefully lacking in its extension and we're finally able to

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begin to address some of their issues that have been decades in the making. >> Very good. Any questions? No. Okay. I believe the budget has been presented. I would like to thank the treasurer. I'd like to thank uh Frank

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Balor, uh Mr. Buckley, uh all our uh department heads who uh took part in this and really, you know, began to realize, you know, and was willing to um uh really tighten up on their budget uh

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so that we are where we are today. It's just incredible and the the numbers just absolutely amaze me that uh we have done so well. Uh I can attest that has been followed by chapter 35 section 28. We're all on board with this. If there's no

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questions uh for the treasurer, can we take a vote on it? >> Make a motion madam to approve the budget as presented. >> You'll hear a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> Thank you.

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I make the revenues as well. >> Oh, we have to do that, too. Yes. I'm sorry. Okay. So, do I hear a motion to >> So, move, madam chair. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Thank you. Very good. Awesome. Uh and again you know presentation

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>> deepest thanks for everybody who has really worked hard on this and you know we are where we are today and I can attest that you know I remember being back there you know many years ago when it wasn't so it was so bleak and uh we just didn't know how we were going to get ourselves out of it. Certainly can

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you know feel for the towns and what they're going through today. Uh but you know it it it it's hard work. It's leadership. It's um just really knowing that you can't spend more than you know what you're you are bringing in and uh you know hold off on some of the re the

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hires and pay increases and until you're back on um where you can you know function and and uh have a good budget going forward. So going forward uh thank you anyways. Um, municipal leadership survey update.

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Uh, we have something here from in your folder for the county municipal survey uh that Chris uh made up and I guess he got a couple of surveys in from a few towns. I know it's just being brought before us right now. So, I wouldn't

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expect anybody to vote on it or to have much a say in uh what input, but if we can look it over, maybe at the very next meeting we can uh add whatever questions we might have and address them with Chris. Um I greatly appreciate I looked at it this afternoon. I think it's a

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phenomenal job uh that was done. You know, brings a lot to mind of, you know, really what we need to do, where we need to go in this and um so we'll table it until next time. Uh, also we have in our

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folder um a an update that Teresa gave us. I think everybody has it in their fold update. Three grant opportunities. Uh, and you know, this is again something that just came before us. We

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haven't had a chance to look at it. Uh, but I think that there's a lot of potential here and a lot of hard work. And um, I would just go ahead and and put this on the agenda for next time. also uh to have any questions or she can maybe elaborate or both of them can elaborate and tell us uh where we stand

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on both of them. Uh thank you so much. I greatly appreciate both of them for working so hard on both of these items. I know we've been asking and asking for them and I know it takes time and and they've done a great job. Um okay, so

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moving on. Uh let's see. County Administrator succession and job posting. I know Mr. Basler is going to be working with um our attorney Shannon Resnik to get the description and what we want looking for

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uh successor for uh Mr. Basler's position uh I guess completed by May 15th. That job description finalized by Shannon Resnik and Frank Basler. Uh May 15 job posted to MMA website indeed one a week

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OCPC letter head Facebook um it's going on every uh county website blast list May 21st search committee finalized uh I will be putting together a committee for that uh at a future time June 1st letters of interest and resume back to

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uh search committee June 2nd through June 15 search committee to choose up to three qualified candidates to proceed with final interviews. We're going to June 18th, commissioners interviews and uh scoring of finalists. June 19th

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through July 1st, vetting and hiring choice. July 15 through August 1st, hire a date for new county administrator with earlier than um earlier than better. Uh the earlier the better. August 31st, uh Frank Basler's last day, which is sad to

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say. Um if we have uh you know between now and then I think if we can know come up with some questions uh that we might have. Um uh I know right here we're going to be making a search committee uh confirmed county administrator salary

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105 115. Current line item is 122 for FY26 and 124,400 for FY27. Frank Basler is going to be on vacation July 20 uh July 13th through the 17th and August through the 14th. So we have

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very little time with him uh in the next few uh couple of months. Uh so that's what we're going to be doing going forward on that. Um and then

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so we have all the updates on that and so we'll just wait and see what uh comes up after the May 15 uh going forward extension. Does anybody have any questions? Madam Chair, I would ask if it's an outstanding question that

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we at least advertise a range that's u a little higher maybe to attract a candidate that could be the equal of Frank day one. Um, I don't know who's out there, but I would say at 105 to 115, you're not

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going to get many people that are going to want to leave a position um of equal value for for less than what we're paying our current administrator. So again like I said inquiring earlier that

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um it can always you know default to that 105 you know or maybe we just make the range 105 to 124 or 115 to 1244. So I would just ask that we um >> when we do the advertisement that we have a range originally I was thinking

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that if we did it by commensurate with experience and just left it blank that would just make it all go away. So that might make it easier. I don't know, but you know, you're going to be working with the attorney. >> Uh yes. Uh the chair has asked uh for

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the job description and the posting uh to be completed. Uh our uh goal is to have it in front of you guys. There'll be email for individuals to comment back. Um I'll need some you know at that point. Um this is what the chair put

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forward. Um historically we've always started um if you think that uh uh the person that I replaced um was at the time I think just over 100

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and I came in at 70. Um it's been a long practice of starting at a lower rate for the person for replacement. Um as we've done as you see it with special assistant uh to the treasurer. who have done that and others that have come in.

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So, similar to steps in our union, usually the new hires start at the lower level. Um, but that that that's a commission of decision >> with respect to, you know, when you came in, you had zero experience, right? So, >> well, no, and I mean you in the private

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sector, you were the man, but you know, you had a learning curve and you've earned every bit of it. I'm not saying anything like that. I'm just saying that if the advertisement is written properly in terms of what we're looking for. So are we going to be looking for people with management experience prior to are

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we going to be looking for degreed people? are we going to be looking for people who have certain lure through sherm or certification through sherm or through mcpo you know and you don't have to make those mandates but you could make them

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preferred or you don't make it so that you keep people away if they don't have those credentials that whoever's going to be involved in the process will when we decide will be interviewed and I think limiting it um just limits your

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your your pool of candidates, you know. So, if we say commensurate with experience and then put those um descriptions out there of preferred leadership that you would like um and if no one answers it, fine. And then you at least have an offramp to where you could

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defer to uh the program that you proposed earlier. So, that's all I'm saying. My idea was uh as we we spoke yesterday was uh to have somebody who is you know uh has done regional services because I think that's the direction in which

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we're going you know whether it be federal or uh local uh but I think that would be an important uh aspect right there somebody who's had the experience in that >> so but that's something that we can work with Shannon on

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any other questions Mr. Valenzola. Oops. Okay. Very good. Um, we're then going to go into Mr. Basel's report. We've done the registry. Do we have We don't have to do the registry. We don't

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have to do the uh treasures report. We did that. >> Yep. >> So, we'll go to the admin administrator's report. >> So, uh the maintenance uh superintendence report uh the job the team's doing a great job this time of year. There's quite a bit of vacation utilization. Uh so uh we're uh um the

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superintendent and assistant superintendent are shifting the teams around to cover. Uh the treasurer mentioned uh why the budget was over uh was uh anticipated being over uh spent this year and it really breaks down to

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two projects uh that were unant unanticipated and happened in year and that is the uh steam boiler uh uh uh malfunction in Hangingham. And we took that opportunity not only to uh to

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replace the steam boiler which we needed to but also to upgrade uh to H uh uh two heat pumps uh to uh in order to get a incentive back on the program. Uh and then we also had a piping repair for the

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chiller at Brockton Superior. So those two together uh actually were almost $400,000. The uh Hangingham uh job was uh was a significant job because we did uh heat pump the entire old building at Hangingham which is going to be light

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and day uh removing window uh air conditioners uh and uh using um similar to what we have here in this building. >> So will those be um schedule out? >> Yes, they'll all be fully uh fully funded. So that's the benefit. Now that

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we have a larger budget and we've been spending that money, we then take that money and reinvest it back in and then get reimbursed at following year. So it's a positive reinforcement cycle that works really well for us. >> Uh administrators report uh digital accessibility and website consolidation.

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I mentioned this a little bit earlier. Um the Department of Justice actually on April 20th which is 4 days prior to the deadline uh that they had uh uh drawn uh changed the deadline and extended it for another year. Now we uh obviously 4 days

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ahead of a deadline where we we were well ahead in the planning uh so we have chosen to continue on that planning get a head jump on it. Uh this will add in the um ability of our citizens to utilize the website with uh all sorts of

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additional tools on it including um uh including um uh different language uh accessibility. Uh so we already had at that point had signed contracts. So we are moving ahead. Uh we looked at uh

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delaying it a year but it actually would have cost us significant money to pull out of the contracts we had signed. Uh unfortunately DOJ um bowed at the last minute and uh gave us that. Uh we also were taking advantage of it uh with the

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extension service upgrade um uh and having them roll under the main Plymouth County website. So that's going to be a big plus going forward. Uh dredge update. Uh I've been uh chatting with the uh Wellfleet uh harbor master and

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town manager. Uh we'll be doing a project in Walthleet. Uh this is on the heels of Howitch projects and multiple uh Felmouth projects uh over the last couple months. So again, uh very excited. The towns uh that utilize the

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machine are ecstatic and nothing but praise. We'll be doing a another press release and we uh I have tasked uh both Chris and Teresa to start working uh with the uh Harbor Masters. Last year I

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presented in front of the Southshore Capecod Harbor Masteraster Association. Uh we're going to uh broaden the approach and look at the uh conservation and um uh committees and the environmental committees to to get some

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additional uh work in county along with the new dredge that we have which is the hydraulic dredge the 4-in hydraulic dredge uh that we are scheduling projects already. if you uh recall that was donated to us by the Central Plymouth County Water District and uh we

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own the county owns that pro property and it'll be executed by the Department of Marine Fisheries for the state. So that's a very uh exciting project and will end up being a big piece of the water management team project uh and a and a a potential lore for them to come

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into the pro project. Uh and then just to uh uh remind uh you all uh we did have the burn grant submission that was due last Friday. Uh we submitted it. It's $107,000. I want to thank the teams uh at the

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Brockton Police Department, the Plymouth Police Department and Middleboro Police Department. Those are the three uh municipalities that were included uh and identified due to some of their statistical analysis of their crime rates. They got identified by the

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federal government as being potential recipients. We uh worked with them, got their uh uh uh requests and it ranges uh predominantly on um radio support for the patrolman uh upgrades so they have

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better communication. And then also Plymouth is doing a very uh cool project with a uh a military drone uh that they will be able to use infrared cameras and cameras is not going to be any uh any missiles coming out of it, but it's more

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for uh rescue, search and rescue. Uh we had a a a terrible incident in Marshfield uh that we could have used additional droneage in the area. Thankfully, uh the young man uh the eight-year-old was found, right, >> by using the county uh the the county

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sheriff's drones, but uh this will allow Plymouth, which is the largest municipality town in the state geographic wise, uh to have the access so that they don't have to wait the multiple hours uh for uh another um

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alternative uh police department or the sheriff to be able to mobilize. So, this is a big win for Plymouth and Chief Flynn is ecstatic um that it'll be paid for by the burn grant. Uh finally, I just wanted to confirm uh after con uh conversing with the chair uh we'll

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continue on this 4 pm schedule uh every other Thursday uh uh for uh going forward. And um I just wanted to let you know uh that that'll be coming out from Nancy uh to you confirm that up in your schedule. Julian put out a schedule with

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TBD but uh going forward it'll be 4 p.m. as per approved by the chair and that is uh the report chair. >> Very good. Thank you so much. Uh do we have any questions uh for my uh commissioners here um going forward uh

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if not then I'll uh entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I I >> broke.