was sent here. >> Okay. Um, >> let's not set. [Music] >> Sorry. >> It's okay. Not a big deal. All right. Uh, so uh, since we're hybrid, roll call
vote to call to order. Uh, Andry >> off mute. >> Yes. >> Ed, >> yes. >> Uh, Jeffrey >> here. >> Uh, Joe Mcdana >> here. >> John Sullivan >> here. >> Mark Zero >> here.
>> Marian Downing >> here. >> Tried to throw a microphone out. And Joe Garnan here. All right. So, um, uh, as always, we start out with an opportunity for public comment. Uh, I don't see any
members of the public other than people who are here to talk about CPA, um, who will presumably get a chance to speak in just a moment. Um, so let's move along to liaison reports now. >> Anyone want to go first?
>> Marian, go ahead. Oh, I >> but they make us use the mics now. >> Okay. So, my only update I guess is from last night's select board meeting that they finally settled on the number and I believe, please correct me, it's 1.14
is what they voted for the tax split. So, it's an increase from a 1.11. And what was unique about the vote was so two select board members had to recuse themselves and without agreement unanimous agreement of the other three
there would have had to been all these state issues and luckily they all did come to an agreement but to me it's it's beyond our ken but it points to a weakness in the charter I mean what if we had multiple select board members that had to recuse themselves
would we be able to have a vote every year so I'm just curious ious what what what would have happened? >> It's um changing in the new charter that we're doing. So >> So that'll be fixed. Okay, good. Thanks. And there is a clause of rule of necessity that as I read went through my
ethic conflict of interest training came across that that particular term which I think might have applied here that if it didn't apply to this particular situation but generally would if they were if there were three members that were conflicted it would have applied
but because three members were able to vote it didn't apply. So >> it only applies when you don't have a quorum right is that right? And just um I wasn't at the last meeting. So I think they approved the trash contract in between these two
meetings. >> Yes. >> And that was going to be back with Republic. I don't know the terms, but they did finally approve that. And it will be um the first year we'll still have every week recycling that I recall, but the fees are going up. So throw your
bulk stuff out now. Jeffrey, my only comment was from the school committee that they thanked us for um voting to recommend the 3% increase in for the budget, but they still have some some tough work to do to fit it in.
>> Understood. Uh Mark, go ahead. >> I think in the select board, they also announced there was a $100,000 grant towards the pickle ball courts. >> Yeah, partly. >> Yeah. >> So, was that was that kind of a surprise at that? We knew we would apply for it, but we were unsure that we would get it.
Um, especially for pickle ball. A lot of times they wouldn't give that kind of grant for pickle ball, but they did. Um, so that's an extra 100,000 that we're going to get now. So, >> does that impact Sharon our debt at all? >> You would borrow less. >> That was going to be my question. So,
that's helpful. >> Yeah, >> maybe a little bit. >> Sharon, you probably have to use the mic, too. Um, >> I got scolded for this at the last time we were in this room, so it's fine. No, I'm excited to do it. >> All right. Uh, anyone else with a
mazison report? I'm not going to report on the CPA study committee because that's on the agenda uh immediately after this. So, all right. Not seeing anything else. Um, so the first thing on our agenda tonight is we are finally getting our we're
getting our belated uh presentation from CPA study committee. Um, we have uh, of course I'm on that committee, but I wanted to make sure we had two people who are not me um, to talk about it here. So we have u Sandy and Kate uh, if you guys want to come up to the podium or however you want to do this in terms
of you have to use the mic too how to make the rules. Sandy knows you can't hear people on Zoom without using the mic. Hi folks. Uh I'm Sandy Mateier and with me is Kate Kmer and uh we are >> Is that mic turned on?
>> How's that better? >> Yeah, the lights on. >> Okay, >> that's a good sign. >> Bring it down any closer. I'm Sandy Mate here and and with me is Kate Katner and we are two of seven members of the ad hoc CPA or community
preservation act study committee. Um and Joe is our esteemed chairman. Um and we've been uh in existence for about a year year and a half now uh doing a lot of background research which some of which we'll summarize for you this
evening. Um so I just wanted to start um by explaining at least in summary uh fashion what the community preservation act is um who we as a study committee are and what our charge is. Um the CPA
is a state law which has been kicking around for over 20 years and um a little over or somewhat over half the municipalities in Massachusetts have adopted it. Um I think conceptually it's kind of easy to understand as sort of a
financing tool for dedicated spending purposes. Uh the financing uh is something or the funds I should say that come through the community uh preservation act come from three different sources. One is a local
searchcharge revenues raised locally. Uh a second is a state match um which is on the order of 20 to 25% of the monies raised locally. And then thirdly is something which is kind of hard to um quantify uh but I call it
third-party uh sources of funds such as government grants, nonprofit uh types of um donations um some some public private partnerships type things. And together those three
sources of fund make up a pot um which is dedicated locally to three types of mostly capital um expenditures uh in three different areas. Uh one is open space and recreation. That's a
combined one bucket um area. Second one is affordable housing and the third is historic preservation. By law, each of those three areas which are bulleted in the slide um are
required to get 10% annually of the funds in the pot uh with the other 70% at the discretion of the municipality in terms of where they ultimately are um are are where they go. Um
so next slide. Um, our charge is to study the merits of the Community Preservation Act, uh, and whether or not we think it should be adopted locally and then to formulate,
um, the way it would be adopted given local considerations. And uh as indicated in the bullets uh we have representatives from conservation, recreation, historic preservation and housing as well as finance and the
select board. Um and we often refer to these subject areas as the pillars of our group. Um and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Um, so
what we're in the process of doing um uh is uh determining um whether or not we think this is a good idea and uh to put together the elements uh of a proposal and to serve that up to decision makers
and for for them to make a decision as to whether or not it's ultimately adopted. And that decision makingaking process uh involves several steps um flowing uh from the proposal or the recommendation that we might put forward
first up to the select board and then in turn assuming it passes through there the town meeting and then to uh the voters at a general election uh each the town meeting and the and the and the ballot question being determined by
majority vote. Um so um what have we been doing for the last year plus? Um a lot of due diligence. Um we've looked back at one prior uh effort in reading to adopt CPA which came in
2002. Uh it was at the same time that the high school was um subject to an override and it lost by one or two% of the vote at that point in time. Uh we've been speaking uh with some of our peer communities who have had recent
experience in CPA adoption. Uh NATIC primarily in Winchester also to a degree um Tukesbury in Arlington. Uh we have um consulted with an umbrella organization
at the state level which services CPA communities called the community preservation coalition which has a lot of data and good experience uh to offer. Um and uh we're considering um what the
options are under CPA um for how much money or at what rate we would propose as a local um search charge. The law allows a range of a half percent to 3%
on top of a property tax bill. Uh, and I'll get into that a little bit more in terms of what the what the um the committee's thinking is. Um, we also have some numbers for you tonight later in the packet which we'll talk to on on the on those slides in terms of how that
would be raised from local taxpayers and what the impact on them would be. Um, and um, I'm going to turn it to Kate here next to give you an idea sort of by way of illustration as to what types of
things in each of these three buckets, if you will, uh, might be funded with CPA monies. >> Thanks, Sandy. Um, so the pillars that Sandy talked about, uh, first one up on the slide there is open space
preservation. Um, under consideration for different projects that we could do with these funds is grow street lots, town forest entrance improvements there, removal of dead red pines in the town forest, invas
invasive species control at the bare meadow area, improvements to the mater, a community garden, and construction of new trails and boardwalks. Um, and like I said, this could also we
could be um eligible for match funds from state and federal grants for this as well. Um, another pillar is recreation. I just as a PS, I'm the recreation liaison to this committee. Um, currently, well, Birch
Meadow project, we've completed phase one down at Birch Meadow. We're in the middle of phase two right now. Both of those projects would would be eligible for funding under this uh playground repairs and updates, tennis, basketball, pickle ball courts, maintenance and/or
construction um and um you know acquisition of lands for uh recreation purposes. Also, this could uh these types of projects we'd be eligible for match and um fundraising from writing sports boosters, that sort
of thing. Another pillar is the historic preservation component. Uh sample of buildings in this category eligible would be the Pleasant Street Center, Reading Town Hall, Joshua Eaton and Parker Schools,
and of course our library. Um other projects that uh would be eligible would be the um purchase, creation and installation of historic markers and uh possibly an archavist to organize, catalog and make documents, pictures
available online. And then the last component, the last pillar would be affordable housing, which reading is in need of. 29% of Reading households are costburdened, meaning 30% of their gross income is
spent on rent or mortgage. Currently, there's a three-year waiting list for affordable housing for veterans, and the wait list for other citizens is nearly 10 years. So, uh, the demand is there for affordable housing. Um and just lastly on the affordable
housing, you know, if the town decides to purchase properties for affordable housing, um because we would be in because we are a CPA community or would be a CPA community, we would um you know, we would qualify for some match um
funding. And as it says there, we could also borrow against these CPA funds as well, serve as collateral. Thanks, Andy. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, so just a quick digression on some of the things that
Kate was um saying is that um the once the law um is adopted uh there's a whole administrative structure that gets put into place uh which is the is the
way that these funds are decided as to whether or not yay or nay. Um and that is a the statute provides a a committee uh to be made up of certain statutory members and then some elected members. They make recommendations to
town meeting what projects deserve to be funded and what amount and town meeting decides whether to do that or not. Um, so the projects that Kate mentioned are just ideas that have been the committee has compiled just to give you a sense as
to what the what things might be in the offing or being proposed for funding. So this slide um uh is an attempt to kind of give you a feel for the range of options that the committee is considering and what the monies
raised uh under under those different options might be. As you'll note, um, we've got Z 0.5 to 1 1.5%. The law allows us to go up to 3%. The committee, generally speaking, is of the
mind uh that we should take the lower end of the of the range. Um, thinking that anything more might be an overreach and might put um the matter into a greater conflict, if you will, politically. Um the
uh one of the takeaways from this slide is that the second and third rows here give you an indication of the last five years of the state match varying between 14 and almost 40%. Um for I guess
discussion purposes you might assume 20 25% is going to be the norm. That's all a function of what monies go into the estate fund which um uh uh is
all those monies come from the registry of deeds in terms of different instruments that are recorded. There's a fee attached to the recording. Uh and all those monies go into a state fund that intent is in turn is dispersed to
the communities that have adopted CPA. Um, reading obviously uh anties into that fund through real estate transactions in town. Um, but because it doesn't have CPA is not getting any of the its share of any of those monies
back. Um for the for purposes of presenting this slide, I kind of gravitate um uh to the middle column uh and in fact the middle box um uh
showing in round terms something on the order of a million dollars that would be yielded between the 900,000 and 1.1 million uh under under a 1% um searchcharge rate. And the reason why
I focus on that is because um and I'm going to flip to the next slide now is because the million dollars that would be raised by a 1% search charge
again coming 80% local 20% state is is about the level that the town has spent on CPA eligible projects over the last 10 years That statement which I just made is courtesy of Joe who did all
the vetting of the last 10 years of operating budgets and sorted out from those budgets the projects or the or the funding that would have been going to projects that are CPA eligible. So what
we are sort of um uh circling around here is a 1% search charge that approximates the spend level the town has um put in place for these types of things over the last 10 years. Uh so
again if you focus for a second on the 1% uh searchcharge rate uh what you'll notice is that uh for the median um uh assessed value home in reading that it's
somewhere in the vicinity of $100 a year which would be uh the add-on if you will to the property tax bill were the were were the 1% uh rate to apply Um, one footnote on this chart is that it
assumes that as the statute allows that there is the first $100,000 of assessed value which is is being exempted. That's something that the committee I think is of a mind to put in place. Um >> the numbers that you had that round
million dollars does that include the the exemption >> for the 3,000? >> Um let me go back a slide just double double check. >> I'll take that one since I made the slide. Yes. >> Yes. This was actually um the I
contacted via um a victor the town assessor and he actually sent me a spreadsheet of the assessment value of every property in Reading. And so I was able to I worked out a bunch of different things but to to simplify things this is residential only. And
then on this slide and then the following slide is actually even more specific. It's um uh single family homes because we're looking at some that's typically what people look at when they're trying to assess tax impact of things. That's the benchmark they use. >> All these numbers are counting exempting
the first 100,000. >> Exactly. >> The the exemption that we would also consider but is not reflected in these numbers. So it would make all these numbers slightly smaller in terms of the totals is um uh we can adopt exemptions for uh lowincome property owners and for
low and moderate income senior property owners uh which I think we are likely to recommend that would uh make those roughly 1% smaller according to the community reservation coalition's data but we don't know exactly because everyone's property value is public record everyone's income is very much
not. Al also there's an option there for commercial properties to be exempted which I think would assumed >> that was actually part of my question is you you only show compet um not the slide of the range of cost
being considered but the amount collected you were only showing what would be collected from a search charge on residential properties. >> Yes, not commercial. >> Why not why not commercial? It was a it was an assumption that was made for purposes of coming up with the numbers.
We haven't formally voted on that. I think the thinking is is that commercial tax base is so minimal compared to the residential that it wouldn't make a heck of a lot of a difference which way we went, but we haven't yet decided on that. But I mean even with you know in
in the select board discussion last night you know people who were supporting increasing the split were talking about if we do that we're going to get lots and lots from our large commercial right so if you're going to get lots and lots then 1% of
you know the assessment on Jordans or the assessment on Home Depot would add significantly to this total would it not? Well, I think that Joe, I don't know if you did it with and without. >> Uh, you know, I did it without. Hold on, let me see. I think I want to say even shared this information with the
committee a while ago when I first did it because I was so darn proud of myself uh for my spreadsheets. Um, but let me go find this. One second. Do revenue analysis. Uh >> while you're doing that, the one other footnote um on the million dollars, if
you will, here is that it doesn't ex include any of those third party sources of funds, which I made reference to and Kate as well. And in some cases, particularly housing, those are extremely significant. Um, we've got a couple of people on our study committee
that do a lot of this work in metropolitan Boston and some of the multipliers that they're able to get on affordable housing projects are are pretty impressive. They they range from 10 to 15 times times multiplier.
>> Um, and those are just funds that are out there and if you're doing that type of work, you can you can access them. >> Well, well, Joe was looking up. So, just to clarify, are we allowed to do something that maybe we can't do with residential taxes where we could say
businesses assessed at less than 2 million, and I'm making that up, could be treated like residences to have the first 100k exempted, but larger businesses wouldn't or I I don't know, are we allowed to do that? >> Not that I know of. I think it's it I
think the statute talks about commercial versus residential. I don't think there's a sliding scale or >> so that yeah I know I'm a senior since then but >> yeah no it is um one of the properties of the community preservation act um that maybe is my one of my least
favorites is that there is a a very short list of exemptions that you are allowed to offer and not anything else. So um in 2002 $100,000 was a significant share of your property value and now it's not. Um but they haven't changed
it. um they don't have um you know you can give the $100,000 exemption to residential commercial both either um and you can also exempt commercial entirely uh if you wish um and you do see the range in other communities they
do everything from the one extreme of exempting commercial uh which is what the numbers on the screen reflect versus the other extreme of making sure to not give commercial the extra 100 thousand because they are um you know looking do
tax residents less and businesses more. Um, I want to answer Marian's question about how much money it is. Uh, so, uh, for fiscal year 25, um, instead of raising $790,000, if we included commercial, it would have
been 841. So, a difference of $50,000 roughly. >> So, it's not that huge. I mean, we talking about 1%. So 1% of, you know, that tells me that our partial taxes are, you know, order of $5 million,
which actually kind of checks out. 1% of $5 million would be 50,000. >> All right. Martin, you had a question. >> Yeah. Just on the uh the state batch, you know, you've got 21, it was 90 39%, last year 14%. >> What has the trend been like? Do you
have >> is it going down or is it >> Yes. Yes. But um and um it that matches a function of two things. One is uh the level of real estate activity and the
amount of uh documents and instruments that are being recorded at the registry. So when you have high mortgage rates, for example, um houses that are relatively unaffordable for entry-level buyers, um the combination um you know, where the housing market is kind of
stuck um the the the uh transactions are not as they used to be and therefore the fees are not rolling in. were rates to come down. Um there presumably would be an uptick in transactions and fees. The
other thing which is a little bit uh less of a factor but still is the number of communities that are tapping into that fund. So as um that number goes up uh the share if you will for each goes down. Uh so over time more and more
communities have come in real estate has gone up and down and up and down. Um and I guess the reason for those two rows was to try and give you a feel for recent history. Um and uh last year was among I think the
lowest in >> I think 25 was uh I should look this up. It was definitely higher than it was 19. Okay. So FI25 drained it up a bit. Um again because interest rates probably weren't as brutal as uh the previous
>> 23. No. Uh FY25. The this when I made this slide, the FY25 state match had not been announced. >> It's 19. >> It was 19. Yes. Do >> you know like what was it in 23? >> Uh I don't know off the top of my head,
but these were the highest and lowest values that I could find in the last 10 years. And going back any further than that is kind of nonsense because as Sandy said, when there weren't as many communities in it, um the matches were higher. first two years it was 100% match. Um just just to clarify like when you
said um this would allow us to potentially qualify for more grants like how's that work just because this is part of the CPA funding or just the project itself like for instance like for >> it works differently under different
programs in different areas but um for open space and rec open open I'll I'll just kind of give you a sampling of the way I I understand it to be from with limited experience. Open space is is there's a lot of federal and
state grant programs. Let's say if you're if you have a project that meets the qualifications, you're you can presumably tap into funds. Um and there's quite a bit of money out there for that. Recreation where we see it
most is with private uh like booster type clubs. uh that themselves fund, you know, raise monies for certain projects and certainly would be um incented to do that type of thing were seed money to be
available from the CPA fund. Um, historic is not quite evident to me where that comes from, but there are p public private partnerships that offer up in that regard. And affordable housing is just chock full of public
money that's waiting to be tapped. And so when you have a fund that enables a project like that and you can even bond many of these things against the CPA fund, uh you can really uh as I say goose the amount of money that goes into
those things by tapping into those sources. And I'm relying a little bit on what I'm saying here, a lot on what I'm saying here, uh, based on people who are expert in the field and they work it every day and they're on the committee and this is what they've told us repeatedly. >> Okay. >> So,
>> and then you have to do you have to spend down X amount of money each year like no 30% of >> No, you can reserve you can bank it >> so it can stay in the fund for say a later day or a bigger project. >> Okay. And then back to your Grove um street lot project like if we wanted to
put two and a half million against that we only had a million for that year. I guess you the point is you could borrow against that. >> You could >> correct. >> Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Thanks. >> Uh go ahead John. At some point we're in
the presentation but yes. Go ahead. Uh >> there's nothing that prevents us from using this money on stuff that we would have been spending money on otherwise. Well, um I think it's a Department of Revenue um ruling as I recall that says
if you've um decided to spend money on a particular project before, you can't later go back and tap CPA for it. >> Okay. But going forward, if we're going to >> forward >> more pickle ball courts or more playgrounds, whatever, we can use this
for that. Even if we would have done it without CPA. >> Yes. Okay. Absolutely. And the beauty of it is that um either you're getting other sources of money to come in on top of locally raised money or you can
actually save that money um by having only part of it paid locally. So one way the other from a financial standpoint it seems like it's hard to think that's a losing proposition and in some cases there's an awful lot
to gain. Any other questions before we continue? >> We have We just have a couple more slides to wrap it up. >> More left. Yeah, go ahead. Okay.
Excuse me. Okay. What's next? So, our intention is for this upcoming town meeting to um present anformational report. Um January or February of 26, we hope to
have a tighter report for the to present to the select board. Uh April 26, go to town meeting then. Um, and that's basically asking town meeting whether or not we should put this to the
citizens of the town for a vote. Um, and that election that would be the November 26 election year from now. And then if approved, town meeting would then vote on creating a community preservation committee. And then town meeting in
April of 28 would vote on the first alloc allocation of CPA funds. and July of 28 would be the first distribution of CPA funds. So not a quick process but >> so
I guess what we're asking tonight is it says vote on a future meeting on whether your committee or organization would support the recommendation of CPA. We're um we have been going around to all as many uh town boards,
organizations, subcommittees um and doing a presentation like this and just trying to get some input from the town committees as to how they feel about this this concept and whether it would be worthwhile for it to go before
the you know a townwide election for approval. I'll point out that the um the first bullet here our committee gets for free because if this goes to town meeting it will be a financial warrant article that we will be asked to discuss and vote off. So uh that that will happen sooner
or later. Um for other committees it's more of a you know is this something you think will be you know I the committee which is in fact coming to town meeting asking for money uh you will be unsurprised to learn that they are you know very interested in the possibility of writing adopting the CPA that sort of
thing. So I think historic preservation has has voted on it. Um some others but yeah uh so yeah the as it says here um I mean the decisions this committee has to make the biggest decision that this that the CPA study committee has to make is the
sort of recommendation on search charge rates. I guess the recommendation on exemptions is also important um but that one I feel like is maybe less controversial. Um uh the surf charge right one is probably the you know most you know it's it's a question with with the probably be most contentious. So if
people have thoughts on that um if you want to share them now or you want to share them later please do. Um you can contact us at reading.govcpa. Um Jack's made a cool website for us. Thank you Jackie. Joe, go ahead. >> Like your point about the search charge
rate, like my understanding is like by not doing the 3%, we give up the ability to participate in round two and round three of additional reimbursement. Is that true? >> Um, the communities that get to do round two and three, if I'm not mistaken, are
small, rural, and poor communities. And when we looked at the criteria um we found that we were a far cry from qualifying for those rounds and they also have to elect up to 3% as I think your question assumes. So um most of the
funds I forget what the percentage of but the overwhelming majority are round one >> 80% of the way in round one and then 20% of those uh registry fees are saved for rounds two and three but as uh Sandy said they are sort of um uh the formula
for allocating them is based on the size and uh you know uh financial status of the community. So, and and just like a like a comment on the presentation like first thanks for for doing all this good job. Um I think
some cynics might look at it and a lot of your use cases people would say well the town was able to do most of those anyways and this would only help with the timing. So it might help to like and I saw your point probably about oh well we spent this money anyways right and
this could have been a source and you know, but I also think it might be helpful to have some of the other like birch metal 3 and four or other, you know, more updated playgrounds or more pedestrian paths or bike trails or, you know, some some things like the wish list things that we're not getting to. I
mean, that might might give give more support for it. Just just a thought. >> Well, you've answered for yourself anyway the last question we had, which is what other ideas do you have for, you know, how the money might best be spent? Um, I mean,
>> we're just trying to get a feel for what those ideas may be. They may be may sell a lot better politically than than the ones that we have. >> And like you said, we do this anyway. The town spends roughly the million dollars anyway, but with the, you know,
with the match from the state now, your dollars going forth. It's like people love to talk about the state matches when you're building a high school or a new school and you get the match. You know, kind of a little bit of a same thinking that if you get in if
you get into the CPA then you're eligible for additional funding. So, >> and then last question on the governance like in terms of how you vote on how that money is is spent, who ultimately owns that? Is that the select board based on recommendations from
>> No, no. There's a on the second or last slide I think it was um said if the town votes to adopt the law at the next town meeting, a committee is formed. It's called a community preservation committee. Um and
there's a required makeup of the law provides a required makeup for that committee. That committee uh serves as a sort of a clearing house for projects that are being proposed with certain amount of funding from the CPA fund that
then go is served up uh to town meeting who makes the final decision as to whether or not the project gets funded. >> Okay. So every year ongoing there'd be a process to go before town meeting. Okay. >> Right. town meetingings got to approve it. But the the committee will vet the
projects and help people coming with projects to to you know if it needs to be tweaked or get it in shape but they will be doing the vetting and then the recommendation goes to the select board and then town meeting has to vote on allocation of those funds. Great >> every year.
>> Thank you mayor. >> Um I have a like a logistical voting question. So, I see that um you're expecting a vote in a year. Are there requirements for um that it can be that it has to be part of
a reg um like being the only thing on the ballot? You know how there's certain requirements for the override? I didn't know if CPA had requirements like could it in a lot of community members who especially after our later discussions in this meeting who are going to be
aware that we may be contemplating an override for like fiscal year 28 might want to know that amount before they commit to different things. That's part one of my question. And then part two was can you only present a single CPA
amount on a ballot or can you have a tier? And I'm inspired by seeing that Maros, which passed an override yesterday, I don't personally like the framing of their question, but they had a tiered override where people could vote for any
different amounts. And actually, it was, you know, whichever if they all pass, the largest one wins. And I don't, you know, it could have been this, it could have been they could have framed it as well, whichever one gets the most votes. But do people when they have CPA votes allow the
communities to choose between yes, we'd want half a percent, 1%, one and a half, or just this is it. >> I'm pretty sure this is it, which is why we're struggling to find the right number given all the considerations that
we think should bear on that. Um I know that the statute um actually has a form of article that's required to go be on the ballot. Uh and I took a look at that once and I didn't see anything. Um and
CP the people that we've consulted have not indicated that there's a um like a set of options that you can put out to the voters. Uh and I haven't heard of any city or town that's done that. Uh so
um okay Joe was shaking >> his can it be on the same ballot as a town election like would it just in terms of um saving money on elections and I know with an override you could have it at the same time as something else but I believe it has to be its own
ballot and I don't know if CPA could be a ballot question that goes along with you know our spring municipal elections or whether we would be holding our own election in November. just through CPA or would it coincide with governor election or something?
>> That's a state election. >> State elections November of 26 >> to to answer your question. So, it's interesting. It's actually in in some ways the opposite of the requirement was an override and I don't know how we ended up with the in the Commonwealth having these two different questions
restricted differently, but um for the Community Preservation Act, it is required to be at a regularly scheduled state or local election. So, we would be allowed to have it in April at our local election. We would be allowed to have it in November at the state election. We would not be allowed to call a special election for it at another time. Okay?
And you're not allowed to use the primary either, interestingly enough. So, like the September primary is no good. >> I think they want to make sure that you don't have it at a like time when nobody shows up except for one side basically. I mean the interesting part of I think
your question is you know how this relates to a potential override and whether or not the time this is being timed in a way would coincide with either an override article or um at least the spectre of one sometime soon
and whether or not um this is part of the problem and of of might be part of solution. Yeah, I think I think Winchester delayed their CPA passing because they had I don't it was a debt exclusion that
they wanted to pass for an elementary school, but that was a vote and I know they delayed because they didn't want it to impact that debt exclusion. So, I don't know if we're going to have issues with override timing and that is probably all to be determined, but thank
you. Yeah, I mean to state sort of two obvious things. Uh on on the one hand, uh uh CPA ballot questions are much more likely to pass when there is not another tax related question before the voters at the same or similar time. Also,
there's always a tax related question before the voters sooner or later. Um, you know, we have uh we went a fairly long time between, you know, the uh uh I guess the override and kill that was like uh you know, seven years. I don't know when's a lot of time running seven
years without considering you know tax at the ballot box. So hard to find a big window. >> Can I ask a question on the um governance? >> Go for it. So at the beginning of the presentation
there is an this acts as an advisory board. Um so my question is let's say this moves forward gets funded and then about five years from now we have a project the the funding is released and
the work on the project begins and the project doesn't go as planned. So who is accountable of that? because the board sounds to me it's just an advisory board but there is no accountability. I'm just trying to figure out basically who's who's accountable
u for the for spending and making sure that the money that's being spent from the CP the CPA is actually going where it should be basically >> I'm actually looking at Shar in case she knows although obviously she wouldn't know that from experience in reading. My understanding though is because it is
approved by town meeting is then at that point it's you know handled in the manner of other town meeting allocated funds. Um obviously it's separated from it but then again so are a lot of things from you know it's not part of the general fund but so are >> yeah I I thought of that too but uh
because they're an advisory committee they are in charge of sending stuff to town meeting so if they don't send the project that went wrong to town meeting town meeting cannot vote on it. So, it's kind of I was just thinking of that. That's all. >> So, I don't actually know, you know, I I
know the procedure for putting something on the warrant to town meeting. It's the bar is very low. I think it's 10 signatures. Um uh so I don't know off the top of my head whether or not you could put something to town meeting that the community preservation committee had
rejected. Obviously, whatever town meeting approved would need to, you know, the math would need to work. it can't approve um you know more money than it has to spend. Um but I don't know how that would play out. I I wouldn't recommend it personally. Uh you
know the committee exists for a purpose brings together representatives from planning and recreation and uh conservation and so forth you know who are experts in the respective areas where the CPA can be spent. >> Jo was thinking of the affordable
affordable uh housing for example. >> Yes. If there is a project let's say um an innovation project let's say the right now the senior center there is CP if we have money through C C uh CPA
after 10 years we're going to redevelop that into affordable housing you can spend that money for that purpose however um we hire it has to go through town meeting first to get approved right let's say that the
CPA a board doesn't want to do that. So where is the accountability? Who's who's accountable for this? This is just an advisory committee. So every time I see or I hear that term, I think about the who's responsible if something goes
wrong. That's all. But it's just my my opinion. So, as I understand it, the the the community preservation committee has to file at least an annual report >> to the select board showing its
activity, what's been distributed, I would assume projects that have come in for consideration, that sort of thing. So, there's that. And then like Joe said, this the committee is going to be made up of, you know, experts if you
will in all these these pillars that we've discussed. So I I think there's over, you know, there will be oversight onto this committee and it's really just a funding source and once it gets to town meeting, once it's approved by town meeting, then it's like any other
project in town that gets funded and whoever oversees it. >> I mean, who who's Yeah. Go ahead, Sharon, if you have anything to add. >> It would seem to me that there would be a separate fund where the funds would go and I would probably oversee what it's
used for. So, if if there's a vote of town meeting, >> right? And like I said, at least an annual report, if not a semiannual report presented. So, >> although I've never dealt with so I don't know for sure exactly how it's set up, but I would say that that sounds like the way it is, especially if money
can roll from year to year. It's not annual money. kind of a revolving fund type. >> A revolving fund sounds like what it would be, >> correct? >> Yes. Um, no, this is great. That's why I brought it up and and the the mandate to
have representative from several boards. That could go both ways because the folks that are on the parks and recreation would advocate for parks and recreation, the historical folks would advocate for that. So, that could cause some friction there too. But
um yeah >> so they it can't go both ways. I mean we we are we are you know the nine of us here on pincom are on a committee that provides advice that's now meeting on how money should be spent
and there are many stakeholders who would like to see money spent various ways. So I, you know, if we're all right, I'm hoping that the uh community preservation committee would be all right, too. >> Little leap of faith. Yeah. >> Are there any other questions for uh
Yeah, go ahead, Jeffrey. >> So, um there's a 10% minimum for each of the three categories. So, so I I I understand that the idea that, you know, we'd have this million dollars, we'd have spent a million dollars on those three buckets at some point and you
know, by doing the CPA, we get the state to kick in some amount for doing something we would have done. So, like in some sense that that seems a no-brainer, right? That like wow, we can if we just do this, then we can kick some state funds in to pay what we would have paid for anyway. The only question I have though is is that we have a
minimum required of 10% of each of those. I think clearly we've spent well over a million dollars on all the recreation um and conservation things. I'm not sure what we've spent for affordable housing in the past 10 years.
And we're now required to allocate 10% of whatever we bring into this thing that maybe we haven't been doing. Um and maybe we should be because there's lots of of state grants that we could kick in, but it's like it hasn't been a priority for the town to do that. And
I'm not sure on the uh historic preservation how much they've done >> for historic preservation. Um the key to that is all the historic buildings that the town owns and the projects on them. So like even the Parker roof would have qualified because Parker is a registered
historic building. Joshua Eaton is Town Hall, the library, Pleasant Street Center. Um uh I can't remember, maybe one of the fire stations. I'm not sure. But in any case, um you know that that's we've spent. So the um you know uh you are
right. I think of the 10 million that I found in roughly 10 million. Again, I'm not I'm not a lawyer, so I'm guessing as to whether these projects are CPA eligible or not, but my educated guess uh was 10 million. And um I can show you my spreadsheet by the way. Um
>> I'll take your word for that. >> Second prize. You see two spreadsheets. Um the uh but yeah the you your intuition is right. Wreck was the largest. Uh historical was second. Um and I think conservation would have been
actually third because I think the only real significance expense there was the um the one lot that we bought on Grove Street. >> Conservation fits in with recreation. >> Yes, that's right. They would be in the same 10% pool. >> What about um >> affordable housing? Would it be Yes. So that is
>> did we spend anything on historical pres on affordable housing >> in that $10? >> No. And so that is you can see that as a bug or a feature but it would require eventually and I mean I understand there communities that do this like I can't remember which community but there was
someone who had not spent any of their CPA money on affordable housing in 20 years and had just been banking that 10% every year and then they finally did a project. Um so that's you know that reading could do that if that is the
will of the committee and town meeting >> Joe. Yeah. And and to that point, I mean, we already have like an affordable housing trust that I don't think that money's been spent down, but >> No, I mean, that's actually the affordable housing and we did um I wasn't there, but a couple people from
the committee went to the affordable housing affordable housing trust fund trustees meeting. Um and uh you know, obviously I mean that is a that is a strange fund because it is a fund with no funding. Uh, and obviously, um, if
Reing did adopt the CBA, one thing Reading could do with his 10% is just put his 10% in there every year and then that fund would actually have meaning, value, purpose, and utility as opposed to just being a committee that meets every once in a while and looks at the same small amount of money and doesn't do anything with it,
>> right? Because I I thought there was some money in it. Maybe it's >> it is, but you you can't I mean, I think it's on the order of hundreds of thousands. >> $400,000. Yeah. That'll that'll um, >> right? that that they that will not get you a shack and running. So,
although I do wonder why they're not looking into more of these um uh you know, the the things that we learned about in our investigations on the CPA committee about state affordable housing plans where there's often a, you know, very significant amount of money available and you need to put in a small
local share as your contribution. Um, I do wonder if the affordable housing trust folks have looked at that, but I don't know. Any other questions? >> Yeah, the housing authority and the housing the affordable housing trust very interested. >> Needless to say, yes. Right. That that
is one place where eventually there would actually be a difference necessarily from what we've done in the past. >> There's a there's a dire need for that. Just as a thought, rather than um spending the affordable housing money on, you know, you can't buy a house, you
can't buy a shack, but I've heard complaints in town meeting from people who live in subsidized or affordable housing about conditions. Could money be spent to not like go target some restaurant and say, "Yep, we're going to put new appliances in,"
but to improve the properties or provides like do some ma maintenance that might be needed on existing properties that are marked affordable or does it have to be acquiring new housing? >> Maintenance is uh not allowed.
>> Okay. However, upgrade uh which extends the useful life or enhances the value would be >> uh but for affordable housing it doesn't necessarily have to be a capital project. It can also be a rent subsidy
for example or um a contribution if you will to acquisition of affordable housing as well. So you don't have to necessarily think of it as a real estate development project like Vanderville. Um it could take any number of other forms for
housing. Housing is sort of wide open um in that regard. Um there's a lot of operating um type funds that are allowed in that area but not maintenance. >> Yeah. No, it's it's interesting actually
the um for open space and housing uh rehabilitation projects are permissible only if the resource was originally acquired or created with CPA money which is interesting like so you wouldn't be allowed to go put in an elevator at
Tannerville but if we then you know redevelop you know took an existing you know property that's owned by the writing housing authority and redeveloped it to have more units which is plausible um then subsequent rehabilitation of that property without you know completely creating it from
scratch would would be permissible. I don't know why it's like that. Any other questions? Thank you. Uh thank you both for the presentation. Thank you to the whole committee for a lot of good questions. >> Thank you. Appreciate
>> you. >> All right. Let us continue with our agenda. Um, so, uh, the the, um, the next on the agenda is discussion on the process for considering a future override. Um, I was hoping that Matt
would magically have all the answers to know everything about what we might need to do in the future for an override. Um, uh, he he mentioned that he does have to get ready for town meeting next week. So, this is going to be informal, not a detailed presentation. But I wonder if people have questions that other people
might know answers to. Um or you if people want to share what they know about the process and matches anything you want to say to start us off, please do. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Um and thank you for the opportunity. Um I think what we I'll talk a little more, but I thought we were talking about maybe
having a joint meeting with the select board to sort of kick things off to make sure everybody's on the same page because we want to make sure we have we have buy in. we we need to know the process but also are we ready there'll be a lot of input from Sharon so I think that might be a good way to to start off
um you know at that meeting or even before that we can we can go back and see what we did last time see what we may want to do differently this time and outline a process you know and the timing is still up in the air as Sharon will say you know we're not sure you
know we know that one is coming down the road we're not sure exactly when that's going to be Um, so you know, a lot of the timing would have to fit into that space. So, but I'm also interested to hear what what the finance committee has to say obviously um about your feelings. I know we've got a lot of input at the
last discussion regarding free cash. So, I took that back um to my department heads. Tomorrow we're having a department heads meeting and I'm going to talk more about the budget there as well. So, we're we're sort of gearing up and trying to, you know, be as frugal as possible as we do the leadup. But in
terms of the nuts and bolts of it's going to be on this day and it's going to be this amount, that's still that's still yet to be determined. So >> I have a question, but I want to give other people chance to ask questions first. >> Jeffrey just leaned in. >> Go ahead.
>> I I was treasurer for both Yes, for writing override to town. So I I kind of pulled that, you know, down unloaded the information that's like, you know, these things start to to come back up. I mean, you know, certainly it's the select board that ultimately
puts the the warrant articles out out for the election. But there was certainly also, you know, a large amount of of community education that went into doing this and deciding how are we going to are we going to do an override? How much are we going to do? And you know,
one of the questions I I specifically remember the former town manager um probably lasher asking was, you know, if you don't want the town to spend money and you don't want this override, name a service you use that you would be happy to do without. Right? He didn't want people saying, "Oh, I have kids, you
know, I don't I'm not a senior. I don't want the senior center. Oh, I don't have kids. I don't want education." He said, "Name a service that you're using that you would like to do without in terms of, you know, where are the things that we should cut back on." But uh you know that that's kind of bits and pieces from
my recollection from a few years ago also that um it fa the first time it failed and it was sort of like I think Bob Le was was commenting on this was something that the town didn't really we hadn't done one in such a long time and so many of the voters in town um like in
the apartment building or something had no idea you know it just wasn't something that was on anybody's mind like oh do we need to do this? Um so you know kind of educating people about the whole you know what is prop two and a half why is it always a problem um is
something that almost we had to do that first override it failed just to get that level of education out to the community. Uh Ed, I see your hand. >> Thanks Joe. Um um and actually I'll echo
a lot of what Jeffrey was just saying. I I I think you know what you mentioned in the outset Matt is I think is going to be very helpful um because I think that was you know going to Jeffrey's last point I think that was probably the parts of it that were missing um when we
went through the first override as far as having you know um you know kind of clear messaging uh clear um um you know kind of details from everyone within town staff department heads etc you know
um you know what that meant for schools, what that meant for fire and and police and and and services that are out there. I think those are all um important things and it's all things that we've talked about, you know, kind of in the last couple, you know, kind of budget reviews is okay, well, you know, where
are we staffingwise and, you know, and what's the, you know, the last things that um were cut, you know, from a, you know, from a budget that you're proposing. We would just probably look at this in the inverse. you know, what are the first things that you would have to do without um I think those are the
the the types of things that would, you know, need to be in that um you know, in the planning stages. Um um and I think that's um I think you're you know, kind of right on the right track, you know, um from that perspective. My my question
was um you you mentioned, you know, kind of when were you thinking about um the the timing of that of that meeting? Is that something that we're I mean obviously knowing full well that town meetings in you know 5 days and so uh
that that's obviously kind of um you know front and center. Um but just curious >> yeah we do have town meeting coming up and then we're right into Thanksgiving and then we're right into you know talking about this year's budget with
the select board um for the first part of um December. So they'll they'll get a little flavor for it during those budget meetings. So I would I would think probably early early next year in January, you know, when things re up a little bit. Um we can start having those
meetings in earnest and start planning forward. I just want to get through, you know, this this budget cycle a little bit more, get through town meeting, um, and then get to a place where we can we can start talking and and during that time, I'll be looking at this year's budget, and I'll be bringing that to you
in March, as I always do, um, with the with the department heads, you know, so you'll have a good sense of where this year's budget. It's really, you know, 27 next year's budget is going to be, but we're working on it now. So, I I mean I I I leave the timing to the to the select board and the um and the finance
committee, but I would say, you know, sooner rather than later is good to get everybody on the same page with these things. >> And and and Matt, you you just so I had it right. Those were joint meetings between the select board and and and fincom, correct? Is that what you were Yeah, I think at least a joint meeting between the the select board and fincom
and I'll talk more with the select board about that just to and and right and school committee like the three big boards that have budget control um you're right school committee as well we talked about um or at least members of those you know doesn't have to be the whole committee but at least the chairs
to talk about you know what what they think we need timing what's what's going to happen and I know that I've gotten a lot of feedback from the select board and the select board is saying and rightly So start looking now at ways to save not only cut but generate more funds you know and that's what we've
been bringing to the select board just about every meeting and you know every like Sharon said every little bit helps. Um we'd still have to bring a lot more to to say we don't need an override ever and that that's just not a reality under you know Prop 2 and a half but if we can
sort of stay it off a little bit I think that's what a lot of people are looking for and maybe some town meeting members as well. So, >> I mean, I I think that's you kind of hit on one other piece that I was thinking too and um and and that might be, you know, a good place to start is is to
have a, you know, kind of a um a steering I don't I don't even know the right, you know, uh um description of it, but a um um a steering committee or just that that's made up of the chairs and the vice chairs and, you know, yourself, Sharon and and Jane, you know,
to be able to kind starts to, you know, and and I don't know if those things have started, you know, um, you know, now that all the reorgs are in place, but I think that might be a good place to, um, to start. um you know this is you know obviously you know kind of a
full you know you know community um you know issue and um you know kind of getting all those chairs and vice chairs together you know um to be able to have that you know type of discussion and and kick those off and have those you know going along at the same time at a at a
you know at a cadence. It doesn't have to be, you know, kind of weekly obviously, but stuff, you know, stuff in that um in that regard. That might be another place to be able to um uh to do this. I know we did a few of those um um you know, um when I was uh when I was
chair um uh just to be able to kind of start to, you know, think about some of the other community priorities. So that that that that can be helpful as well. >> Yeah, I agree. So just I was going to say something similar to what Ed said and I was just
researching his as he was speaking multiple communities around us have formed um so-called override study committees because if you start taking fincom school committees like that's 20 people in the room already that's a lot of voices and you know Brook I think
Brooklyn Norwell they also can maintain a page of information so it's not necessarily to take the place of yes for writing but it's an objective pl you know community where community would have questions like I mean Stonem's you
know we'll see how successful they are because their overrides in just December they already had a failed one but when I look at their makeup like they have um a select board designate a school committee designate three resident three or four residents I don't know if they
have a finance committee there >> that the the chair is >> finance and advisory board >> finance and advisory board design. So they're they're picking people, but they're also including residents. And I don't know. I guess you're not going to pick town staff or some, you know, somebody that
would be impacted by the over like benefiting from the override, right? But >> well, I mean, myself and Sharon would be and probably Jane would be involved pretty heavily, >> right? Like that's I mean like that that kind I mean you guys are different than I'm saying like, oh, a member of police
and fire union. Like >> we're not at that level at this point. But it see it seems like there could be an initial meeting and we I don't think we've ever had an over like override study committee >> time. I don't think we sort of moved with what we had but it's not a bad
idea. You know that that's goes to my goal of getting everybody on the same page. >> Right. It's just that it's so many people and so many voices and a lot of time from a lot of people. It's just we've had success with you know we have our kilum committee we had the ARPA committee and and things you know got
done and got done on time. So that would be a goal. >> Yep. No, that's good feedback. I appreciate it. >> So I'd been thinking about how bad the timing is of the need of the override where we've done the debt exclusions and debt exclusions are going to start hitting people's tax bills in fiscal 27
and then we were expecting to have the second trunch hitting in 28. It seems like 28 might be the year. Um, so I was thinking about structuring, you know, we're going to be meeting with the bonding agent to see how we can structure what we borrow to maybe see if there's a way that nothing's hitting in
28 or if we structured if say 28 was the year for the override. Let's say we asked for six and I said, "Okay, I'm only going to hit you for three this year and then three the next year." Like kind of spread it out. like they would have to approve the six million and trust that I would leave the three
million on the table, you know, that I would not, you know, like that we could maybe have different ways to structure it to to lessen the pain and still make the budgets work a little bit easier. So, I'm I'm thinking of all different things. Um we haven't met with the bonding agent with all the we're waiting
on updated cash flows on recal and we have the win for kaleum you know just to see what's the best way to structure this debt so that we can kind of make it so that no one year is just a dramatic hit on any household. It's just not great timing. It hasn't been from the
beginning. As soon as inflation hit, oh well we have this project coming. This is not great timing. So, we are thinking about options and obviously I'll I would be welcoming any advice from others of things that we could do um to try and make it less painful, right? Because
this is a lot to ask of the residents all at once. It's just a lot. >> I'm intrigued by this idea of having the the um you know using doing one override vote to raise the levy limit but then not actually >> exercising the entire levy limit. >> You could say I could take two two
spread it over three years. So that okay the first year you you approved the six years but I'm only going to take two of it and next year I will take four you know I'll be at four and just slowly bringing it in so that our budget starts to see the numbers going down a little bit of free cash as opposed it is
allowed you don't see it a lot but because >> it requires a lot of trust of the resident to know that I will do that that I won't just take million >> it takes a lot of yeah rather than taking whatever that number is whatever we decide that number is if we spread it
over several years. Um, you know, that that could be helpful. Like if people could trust me to do that because once they say yes to it, >> I could technically not do but I would never do that. >> You would have to get it past us and town meeting. >> But but it's a way to structure it to
lessen the pain each year and make it a little bit more palatable, I guess I'll call it. So, it's just been things I've been thinking about and it's something that I think the former town manager Bob Leure had mentioned to me years ago, actually a couple years ago. Um, you know, as a potential thought because we as we started to realize inflation was
impacting us and we had those two projects coming up, he had mentioned it to me. Um, and I just it just came back to me like, oh, what did he tell me I could do if this would happen? And I mean, it's just very difficult to think outside the box and figure out how to make this as minimally impactful as
possible, but we have so much big going on that it's it's hard. So, I welcome any thoughts, but those are some of the things I'm thinking about is speaking to the bonding agent trying to see if there's a way we could structure the second trunch so there isn't anything additional hitting in 28. So it's just
the override or some combination of which you know we you know we try and ask for a number that we you know tear in where we say okay we ask for six million and I'll take three and three or three two and one or however we do it.
Um I feel like that might be making it a little less painful maybe >> but it's just hard. I very much respect and trust that you will do what you do, but just like any lawyer would look at a contract, you can't depend on a person
like it. It would be nice to have that memorialized in writing because you could take a new job. We could >> there could be a different town manager. It could be different government. There could be some new unexpected thing where you say, you know what, I said I was going to do two and two, but we have to do eight all at once now. Exactly. And
so it's hard to >> it's hard and and I don't know I don't know what I'm allowed to put up like I don't know how the vote is allowed to be structured like you had said >> we could tear a vote and say well you're we're you know we could have you can vote me a three or four or five and and whatever the one that gets the you know
the highest one that gets the the highest votes will be able to give the amount but they don't really talk about in what I've read about kind of tearing it in. It is allowed. you can ask for an override and say, "Okay, well, I'm not going to take all of it all at once." It's got to be kind of that trust of the
town manager and the, you know, the CFO and the, you know, that they're going to do as they put out there. Um, and it's hard because I could not be here when it's being executed and that person isn't going to execute. But it would be something I would say, you know, I would
say that I would definitely do. But like you said, any you never know what the future holds. What if that same person's not sitting there and that isn't the one who gave their word that it would go that way? I guess that's one of those things we'd have to ask town council. Is there a way you put that out there on
the vote so it makes it clear so that I I do exactly as I say, you know, or whoever comes next has to do as we agreed. So I I I definitely agree with you. That's the one piece that's there's a trust thing that has to be there and I don't know how you do it, but it definitely seems like it would be a
lessening of the burden. Ed and >> thanks Joe. So I mean uh Sharon I mean you never cease to amaze me in bringing an idea that you know I didn't think was uh that was out there or available. So
again, uh, you know, hats off to you. Uh, uh, again, um, you know, I I I think, you know, this is probably definitely, you know, in that realm of things that we should, you know, kind of have at our disposal as far as talking
points. Um, one idea that I that that came up while you were thinking about it is that, you know, if you have the ability to to do that and, you know, whether it's, you know, kind of stated specifically in how it's voted on, but
some of this actually sounds like just a business practice as well, like you can, you know, you're, you know, when you, you know, kind of document the revenue sources that you're, you know, that that, you know, you're creating those pictures, you know, and those line items that that could be one of those things
you're saying like well hey the override represented you know this number but you know for the purposes of the FY28 you know budget we're only using you know kind of this portion you know things of that nature I think there's ways to be able to present that and I also you know
if and and something to explore because I think that's not only is it a you know you mentioned you the word a few times if there's trust on you but I think that's one of the ways that we can actually instill trust into the the residents and the
voters is that you know you know you're looking at this you know um from every prism um and trying to minimize the impact um on on the on the taxpayer and I think it's just again I'm uh I'm
looking forward to our next meeting because you'll probably have something you know another brilliant idea as well no pressure >> no Um, would you like to ask a question? So, >> I had had a question about about scheduling an actual vote and how that that uh works. I understand that the
select board is the one that decides when this happens uh when when a vote would occur. Um, does the select board give it to town meeting who then has to approve it or is it actually the select board? Um, does it go to town meeting? I guess that's the first question.
>> The select board has to set they have the authority to set the election to and so that's what they would do. That's what they did last time. Um in terms of town meeting, I'm trying to remember if we went to town meeting the last time. Um I don't seem to recall that we did, but I can >> feel like it's a good place to give
information. I don't know if they have to vote, >> right? I mean, we would certainly make town meeting well aware. Maybe some sort of special report or presentation. Um I don't think they have the the exact authority to It says here, you see it?
>> I just was googling and it said, sorry, I'm googling and it I' I've got to see what you know Google's AI says. It calls it a phased in override. >> Oh, you >> So it says comm community communities like Brookline have successfully used overrides that phase in the total increase over a number of years, such as
three years, with a specific dollar amount kicking in during each fiscal year. So unless Google is lying to me. No, I I definitely think it's possible. I just don't know about the language right there on your screen. >> I do have a um >> brainfreemma.gov looks like
>> I do have some information about what you just asked. >> Um it basically says in the guide that DLS gives us, but only the only only way an override or an exclusion question may be placed on the ballot. They may not Oh, the select is the only one that can
put it on the ballot. um they may not be placed on the ballot by town meeting vote or any local initiative procedure. So it has to go through the slide board, but there is I do have kind of a list of things your
responsibility as FINCOM members when an override's going on and it's a lot about um you are like that financial watchdog. you're the one who's supposed to kind of prompt select board that you're you know that it's time right I mean so that's I think why we would have that meeting
with school committee fincom select board so that all the key players are are on the same page but it really is I think the select board's really looking for fin to recommend um the override but there's a lot of things that happen in terms of you know education there's a
lot of limitations on town staff of what they can do because we cannot promote an override I would town funds. We have to be very careful of what we do. That I think that's why you have yes for reading kind of um committees and things like that because there has to be an educational group out there trying to
spread the word that is not kind of using town funds to spread the word. We can give information but we can't we can't kind of promote it I guess is what I'd say. So there's I have this and I'll send it you know by email. It's just um DLS's guidelines of what what is
Finghome's role in an override. Um I mean it's a little premature. We're not there yet because we're have those meetings, but at least I did some research to find I don't think it's it's premature to spread information. I mean unfortunately the you know
the most least favorite thing about you know being on finance committee is that the numbers are you know are what they are. Um, so, uh, you can't, uh, you can't wish $7 million into existence, nor out of existence. >> Um, >> I wish you could,
>> right? >> Be real nice. >> So, um, on the subject of of, um, elections, this is actually maybe a good compliment to Marian's question about CPA election timing. Um, she might even know the answer to mine. I knew the answer to hers. Um, can an override election be scheduled to occur at the
same time as a state election in November? >> Yeah, I have that here. >> Okay. Yes, you have ballot. >> Yeah, I mean that is a I do know that um I understand that both overrides and CPA are um follow a pattern where higher turnout. So like that November date that
was mentioned could be a date that we >> right that is a >> so when they said it I'm like >> raises an interesting well I mean it's so this is something that I think I may have shared this from when I don't know if I shared it with this committee um when the CPA study committee presented to the school committee a member of the
school committee so their first and foremost concern was an override understandable because the schools you know live and die by by an override um uh they were not interested in anything they thought would jeopardize an override. Um, however, there was a
suggestion of trying to, now I understand it would be two different ballot questions. It would be two different ballot question committees, but at least informally, it could be structured as a package deal as in well, we could have raised your taxes 5%, but
actually we're going to raise them 4% plus 1% where the 1% gets a state match. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Which is interesting. that would have that might then maybe that would affect okay we should change the capital you know target to four and a half% instead of five or something >> because maybe some of the capital we
planned on exactly there are there are some possibilities there to talk about so I am interested to see how that goes >> it does say here that a prop two and a half question may be placed on a regular or special municipal election ballot and questions may also be placed on the state by annual election ballot
>> oh wow so it actually could be on the same ballot Yeah, it was last time. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I knew it was on the same I knew it was on the local ballot. I didn't know if it could be on a state ballot. That's >> I think it's nice to schedule it with an election that's already happening just so you don't have that added cost. >> I mean, I have I have heard commentary
from town clerk about the challenges in running multiple simultaneous ballots on the same day in the era of mailin voting >> and confirm. >> Yes, >> I get it. It's it's not >> I mean the plus of having the November
would be that we wouldn't have to build two budgets. We would know if it passed or failed. >> That's another thing about it. The the last two times, correct me if anyone knows that I'm wrong, please correct me, but my un my recollection is that we had
a special election in September for the first one, which presumably that was that's the beginning of the budget process. now that I now that I had no idea why it was in September then, but now I'm like, "Oh, of course, September, that's when you need to know." Um, and it of course got creamed. Um, and then,
uh, later when it was when it passed, it was at an April local election, >> uh, where I was not yet on town meeting or anything at the time, but I understand that the town had to prepare two budgets effectively, >> which that's a lot of work for you all. Yes. So I
>> I mean and it's not that you can't see just looking at the financial forecast that there's a structural issue there, right? >> You know, we've known it. It's not like it has to be proven. It's it's been seen year after year that it's growing. Inflation is hurting our budget more and more every year.
>> Y that answered my questions about scheduling. Uh Joe, I see >> this may come out of the discussions and it may be either I don't know I call it the education category and also maybe wishful thinking but I'd love to see
like any any like pull all the levers like how can we potentially go one more year. Do you know what I mean? and look really hard across the board and not just like hiring freezes or cuts, but extend out like, you know, our pension funding schedule, >> you know, on on capital go to zero, you
know, like push hard on everything and say like, okay, >> we don't have the choice when it comes to our pension schedule. The retirement board sets our payment schedule, so we don't have that choice. Um, I my only thought is is that we've been doing pretty much everything we can. And when
you see those free cash things that I give you in terms of when or our reserves dropped, all of them seem to point to 28 is the year. Unfortunately, it just sometimes it just dictates. I mean, we don't want to see our bond rating go down when we're borrowing the
Yeah, don't don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning like I I I see numbers too. I'm more some of it again is like education, right? And you just saying what I guess on the retirement board though like how is that governed though? Like I'm still kind of >> I'm actually on the retirement board. So
>> I'm the chair. >> So I actually advocated to have it go down because the last two years every two years we have an actuary valuation of our our liability and what's owed. We're just about almost 80% funded for pension. Um I expressed to the board
that the 8.33 that we had the last two years was really too much especially with inflation hitting all at the same time and asked for them to reduce that percentage and we went down to like 5.3% which I think is a much better number.
Um but any more than that would have pushed out our funding schedule further and I don't know if I could have gotten support of the whole board. So, I did advocate for that to get some savings for us for our budget, but that is actually under their authority to decide, you know, but obviously me being
on that board is that voice for the town saying we can't afford that, you know. Um, but we're very close to being fully funded and and they they want to see us get there. So, um, going down 3.3% or whatever it was that they went down on
what we had been paying, I think was a step in the right direction. So we're locked in now for the next two years for that assessment. Those have been reported to per based on that vote of the return report. The next time that they would change it would be two years from now. So I I don't have an
opportunity to ask them to bring it down any further anyway. >> Yeah. But it being 80% funded relative to other towns like we're still in a very high bar there, you know. So, I'm just I'm just >> I know, but the vote has already happened, so I can't change it now.
>> Maybe for the next time. >> For the next time, I could, but I don't see anything I could do that would push off another year. I I maybe we'll get lucky and something will come up, but just not seeing things stabilize costwise is not helpful either because
our projections going out aren't even stabilizing. Until I can see that happening, it's just hard to say. Chairman, isn't there a date that it has to be fully funded? I thought in like >> 2040. >> Oh, it's that >> we're like by doing what we did, we
pushed it out of two years. I think it's 2032. We used to be 2029, >> but we're still way above like most most >> we are way above, but you would you get one bad year of investment returns and you're going the other way. So, it's >> we're also having a good asset run for a
long time now. >> Yeah. We also um have started to pull out of induced thieves to help balance, you know, as we're getting closer to being fully funded. We're trying to um manage our own asset allocation to derisk the portfolio as we're getting
closer to fully funded because Prit is really focused on kind of their bigger like math teachers and math, you know, so they're less funded than us. So, as we get closer to fully funding, we want to pull our assets out a little bit of the more risky things or be able to
decide what percentages are in each asset class. And so, we've already started to do that to give ourselves that kind of control. Um, but it's not just me that decides it's the whole board. It's a five member board. And I I worked them down to five and that was
the best I could do. And I guess the other thing is like on the on the capital side, right? We've been doing like 5% four and a half for I mean back to every little thing helps. Like we could >> we could do that >> but but we also have to say like what's
a trade-off, right? We tell poor Matt, okay, there's a hiring freeze and Matt should come back and okay, here's the services, right? You know that I'm gonna cut, right? >> We certainly could. I mean >> I think for the education I think I think really got to get that out there to people, right?
>> The kind of tax we would need though would be things that would impact services. I would rather ask the voters before I impact services. Do you know what I mean? Like when you're actually not hiring staff and you're affecting the level of service. I know part of me feels like I'd want to have a no vote to
do that. You know, like I want to know that that's what the town wanted. Um at least in my opinion. That's just my opinion. >> But keep in mind a lot of people from the private side are used to just having five 10%, you know, layoffs. There's now there's corporate layoffs and
>> I think taxpayers going to >> get that. Yeah. >> No, I'm again it's not me personally. I'm just saying this that's a cynical side of people. They're going to say like what can't they get cut? Like I think that's part of what's happened in >> my boss did. Yeah. Right. >> I think about how much people pay here
in wring and they want the top level service. You don't want to have them paying that kind of money for real estate taxes and not getting top level service. And when you're when you're forced to cut staff back, there's just very little way that you're not going to affect services. >> Oh, yeah. Again, I'm not recommending it. >> Yeah. No, no. And something that's been
done in the past. I remember Bob went on before the last override. It's something I've been considering. There's been positions that I've sort of put holds on, not an officering hiring freeze, but saying, you know, can we, you know, if we have a couple of these people, could we really do without this one for now until we see? So, so unofficially, I've
been watching every position, but there's no official hiring hiring freeze yet, but it's one of the tools that we could use um to to sort of stay things off a little bit and to show that this is, you know, this is serious, you know, and it would affect services, but, you
know, that's the reality. So, Mark, looks like you want to ask a question. >> So, we did talk a little bit with this on the on the capital plan using debt as far as instead of short-term cash. So, I think that is something we should look at. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Because I remember you said, John
Sharon, that you had done it in the budget that it got approved, but maybe for a 27th budget, we should look at that. seeing if if taking and borrowing for all the capital you mean in terms of >> not not 100% but you know maybe 75 80% of it because then we're not using our
short-term cash on a long >> term. Yeah, that's that's a possibility. I just I feel like the numbers have grown so much of free cash use that it's hard to find that kind of money even, you know, the cap unless I borrowed all of the capital. >> But we're looking at it being, you know,
six to seven million probably a year, right? for um between debt and capital. >> Well, just for just for cap, it's 5% of the budget. It's >> five. So, right now, I think for fiscal 26, it's about $4 million of capital
because I brought down brought it >> because I put off some debt. So, in the end, we end up at like4 million. It's usually somewhere in that 3.63.9 million if it is capital and the rest of its debt payments. So, so the more you borrow, the more debt payments you end up having, too. So it's like you want to
make sure that it's worthwhile to do it. Um smaller things smaller things I can't see bar barring. >> I agree with that. But I do look at like you know long assets should be funded with long-term funding not using issues. >> For sure for sure we could do that. I just feel like we've gotten to a big
enough number that I don't know how how much of that would make a difference. It's certainly something. >> It's worth looking at. >> Great. It's worth telling people we look you know showing that that do that. >> I mean, in future years in the capital
plan, I I do go after larger assets like a fire truck that has grown to like 1.5 million and I'm looking at that as a borrowing, but I wasn't looking at the smaller things like, you know, maybe maybe we could be looking at trucks from DPW that like 300,000 275 and maybe
borrowing for those. >> The problem is issuing debt is so expensive. you want to make sure you have enough to issue because it just it becomes very expensive, you know, the issuance cost plus the interest and all of that. So, we've always kind of been under the practice of not borrowing for
the small stuff, but it's certainly something I could look at. >> Are there any other questions or comments on this topic? All right, another good discussion. I do really like these meetings. All right, let's uh let's keep going. Um so now we
have uh we have another town meeting hiding the first >> um and it has financial articles, one of which is kind of our fault, but we're not sorry. >> Um so let's take a look at that. >> Sorry, not sorry. >> Sorry, not sorry. So yeah, so there's so explain a little bit. Um so we're doing
a know we're doing the subsequent town meeting. We're doing a special town meeting within the subsequent town meeting. It's it's been we we've done this before um for various reasons, but we um when we closed the last warrant when I brought it to the select board
and to you um I was unaware that the senior tax discount um home rule petition was up for re re-upping um at the end of this fiscal year. So it expires in you know June June 30th. Um
it's a home rule petition special act. So, it has to go to the legislature. I I thought originally I talked to Victor about this that we had time to just do this in April and his advice is that the safest path is to to do it now to give the legislature more time because they
get bogged down with other things and for them to turn something around in a couple months um is sometimes rare. So, what we decided to do is have this special town meeting. It's just tacked on to our sub subsequent town meeting. Um and so when I opened it up for that,
there were two other articles that made it their way on as well. One, um which would be article three is the adoption of um uh state statute that allows us to establish the disabilities commission. And I can talk a little bit more about that. And the last article is after your
last meeting, we took the input about the the leftover monies from different borrowing. We had originally said it was going to be split among the Kllum project the recal but thought better to have it all go to the kllum for a variety of reasons we talked about last
time. So we've revamped that article and put it in the special town meeting. So uh that article will be when it comes up in subsequent town meeting that will be indefinitely postponed to the special town meeting and taken up there. Um, so
the f the first article, the senior uh tax discount is actually article 2, one-year warrant. Uh, it's the same that we've been operating under since 2016. Um, there's some background in the warrant about the last few times that we've re-uped it. Um, it's something
that's really helped out our senior population and I want to definitely continue with it uh, moving forward. Um, and Victor will be at town meeting to address any questions from town meeting members, but it's nothing new. We're not asking for any changes to it this year. It's the same exact um situation that
we've been operating under. So that would re require obviously a vote uh by fincom with the financial implications there. And the next article that I talked about a little was the the disabilities commission. So the select board heard a presentation from Albert
Ples who um among other things has taken on the role of ADA coordinator for us and um and after doing some re research we thought it would be helpful to the town to actually have an official disabilities commission. Um we haven't
had one and it's been just a ADA coordinator you know tacked on to somebody else's role for years. It was Laura J who was the ADA coordinator as well as a town core collection official and everything else on her email. You've seen all the the jobs titles that she
holds. So, so, so, um, it was, it was a good move moving it to Albert. Um, Laura wholeheartedly agreed to do that. Um, and Albert's really hit the ground running. So there is the reason why I talk about it within is there's there'll be a little bit of a financial impact
because they there could be fines issued for um any sort of violations of of disabilities law and that would have somewhat of a financial impact. So I thought better safe than sorry to just bring it to Fincom and discuss it a
little here. Um there's also opportunities for grants to come with this designation. Um, so there'll be some some revenue there as well. So that was that article three. And then article four is the one you're very familiar with and it's it's in there and
essentially the same as the article I brought to you the last time. Only all of the allocation is going to the Kllum project. So police station renovation, energy improvements, parker roof, uh, library, all that it's going to be dedicated to the Kilum um project. She
Sharon can answer any questions about that. So why is the next paragraph there? >> The old the old paragraph the background >> the background. >> Yeah. >> Why that why the background is there? >> Yeah. Because it shows it being split between the two.
>> Um that was in let's see I think I think I read that but if you scroll down it says however at their meeting this is showing what it originally was and if you scroll down further it talks about >> right >> how how we were wording it how we decided to go. I think it's on the next
page. Oh, actually do you need that? >> However, >> yeah. >> Well, I think it just um explains why because we're gonna have to indefinitely postpone the one that's on the regular town meeting because we've changed it. And so this kind of shows what it looked like um in the warrant book, what they
saw and and now we've changed it based on Kcom's advice. >> Yeah. I mean, it's just background and I think it's good to have it in there to show what's transpired and I think it was good advice from Flint. You know, we took it to heart and made the change.
So, so we asked for votes on all three of those articles. Tomorrow night, I will bring them to the bylaw committee and ask for the same thing. So, >> all right. So, those are articles two. >> Yes. So, yep. So, it's articles 2,
three, and four. There we go. >> Just a disability. Does that one need a vote? >> I I Well, I I think because I talked to Eva a little bit about it and because um there is the ability to to issue fines
and whatnot, it could have a so that so she recommend >> I didn't look at that as a >> Yeah, but I I didn't either at first because it's just a state acceptance, but based on her advice, I think you're better safe than sorry and and bring it to the fin. So,
>> oh um go ahead. Okay, Jeffrey. >> Not that I always do, but I was just cur on that commission. Is there any um expense expense? I mean, I guess they're all appointed members, so that would not be salary, but would there be additional staff to have someone take minutes or
anything that >> No, I I don't think so. I mean the we'll see how that committee goes but um you know if anything Albert would probably go to those meetings and he could take this and that's sort of part of his regular job. Um so we have I don't I don't think there's going to be any real
expense to it and if there is any it should be covered by like I said any fines and grants so it would be pay off more to have it than than any expense. But off the top of my head I can't think of anything. So >> yeah, >> stole my question.
>> Okay, >> sorry. Okay, >> so you're saying the fines would would pay for the commission because I guess I had a thought. Um we're trying to fund inclusive sports out of some of the um which which are
meant for students with with disabilities out of some of the Burbank money. And then I think I heard something that Oh, maybe it could be handicapped parking fines. I don't know if I maybe I heard that somewhere. I'm not pardon me.
>> Oh, I thought someone said heard that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, I don't know where the the money from um handicap parking signs goes. And I don't know where the money from these fine fines would go, but it would seem to match the intent to go to the inclusive sports. That was just a
thought, but that's not written in anything. >> No. And I I I'd heard that some were too somebody had some we have to look into a little bit more. Um but on the expense side, I don't think there's really much of any expense with having this
committee. It's it's just another committee. And like I said, I think Albert would be staffing it as part of his regular duties, you know. So yeah, >> I'm also I mean I don't suppose we have any estimate of what the amount of these fines would be. I'm assuming that the
the you know residents and businesses of reading do not go around wantingly violating the uh you know racking up fines. >> It would probably need a lawsuit. I don't I still don't know how you would collect You'd have to quantify what the conduct >> sorry you'd have to quantify what the conduct is and what the fine is like
like they're doing with snow shoveling. So, I'm not really sure >> that would have to be sessed out a little bit, but um you know, so I'm it's something we'll look into a little bit more and I'll have some more answers at Tom meeting when Albert's there and is there as well, but you know that it's a
minor thing. I we have violations now. I don't think we issue as far as I remember Laura hasn't issued any fines. It's more education and you know correction is what we're looking for. But in a in an egregious situation, you know, we could do that and that would be
revenue and that would be finance. And so here we are. So this is going to generate the most discussion because it's the least relevant finance committee. >> Um in fairness of course we did already discuss article four under it, you know, other name on on the subsecoming
warrant. Um, so it looks like we are just taking any questions about any of these at once, which is fine because I'm not expecting that many. Yeah, >> there's a, you know, tax exemption that we've had for years and that is, you know, >> yeah, >> I think it's been passed unanimously by town meeting in the past.
>> Um, >> that's true. >> There is a a thing that doesn't actually involve money except maybe in theory maybe one time. Uh, and then so and then there's something suggested I think the only hard part is figuring out who's doing the reports.
>> I don't have any yet. So, >> okay. Well, there we go. I think uh >> I'll take this one. >> Okay. So, so um we can take the least relevant one. >> All right. We have a motion to approve all three. >> Yeah. Let's let's get to the uh So, um it's
>> up to the chair. >> So, yeah. So, let's um >> uh we should presumably take this, you know, as three separate votes. So would someone like to make a motion? Hold on. Let me just go preemptively move the microphone to Emily. I won't say anything else. >> Motion to recommend the contents of
article two to town meeting as presented. >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Jeffrey. Any further discussion before we vote? Do we need to specify that this is article two of the special town meeting warrant? >> Um, clear.
>> I mean, I think that's understood that's on our agenda, but >> you said as presented. as presented. Yes, that's true. We haven't we haven't presented the subsequent meeting warrants today. >> Um so let's not and it won't be confusing. >> I'll get the next one. >> Any other questions?
All right. Uh roll call vote starting on Zoom. Ed, >> yes. >> And >> yes. >> Jeffrey, yes. Joe, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Mark, yes. >> Marian,
>> yes. and Joe Caran. Yes. Need more microphones. Budget's tight. Um, all right. So then >> motion to recommend the contents of special town meeting article 3 to town meeting as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Emily. Thank you, John.
Second. Uh, any discussion? Wasn't expecting any. Uh, Ed. >> Good. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Jeffrey, yes. Joe, >> yes. John, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes.
>> Mark, >> yes. >> And Marian, >> yes. >> And Joe Gran, yes. >> Uh, last one. >> Motion to recommend the contents of special town meeting article 4 to meeting as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Jeffrey.
Any discussion? Uh, right. Ed, >> yes. >> And yes. >> Enthusiastic yes from someone there. All right. Jeffrey, >> yes. >> Joe, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Mark,
>> yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Joe Carneahan. Yes. All right. So then reports. Uh, so we've just had we have to do article two, article three, and article four. >> Uh, are we going to give a report on the one that's definitely postponed? I suppose
we do. >> So maybe not. Well, you you can give a report at the special time meeting, but not >> right. No, I'm wondering whether um because Mark was signed up to report on the >> one that is now going to be definitely postponed. So, you want to switch over
to the one that we're doing for real >> or not? That's fine, too. >> Well, I'm flying in >> Monday night, so there's a chance. >> Okay. All right. >> In that case, never mind. >> Um, so >> I I don't have to. >> All right. So Marian can do two
>> special special two. >> Uh yes. Um so yeah, I think I guess I'm just doing that. That's that's actually the um senior uh tax one >> senior tax. So it was about 80 at the November 5th 9 >> 90 >> 90. Sorry. Y
>> think it's all here. >> Are we doing subsequent or special first? >> Yeah, I should say. So I I think the moderator's plan is to open the special and then move it. You have to move it to a date certain. So then he'd move it to Thursday and we'd go through the
subsequent. So we probably won't get to these articles until Thursday or maybe even the following Monday because it'd be at the end of town meeting. Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. So I had Emily volunteer for article three.
Uh that was also 90. And then let's see. I'm looking back at the minutes. Make to see who we've missed. Unless you want to volunteer yourself before I catch you. >> Uh Joe, I don't have one, but um I I I
don't um if it's I won't be there next week. So >> Oh, you won't be there for either night? >> Either night. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Well, and excuse the absence. Very well. >> Do both since the first one is nonsense. Sure. Let's Let's go ahead and do that
and we can get number four as well. >> Second. >> This will probably be on Thursday. >> It sounds like this could be on Thursday. >> Probably going to be on Thursday. >> So you may So I'm back. I'm back. Back. You can do >> Mark. You want to do the the um the new
and improved version of of moving this money around? Sounds good. >> Right. Was >> credit where due. You were the one who made the suggestion. So no no good idea goes unpunished. All right. Uh let's see. So then that I
believe covers it for special town meeting. >> Um topics for future agendas. >> When will our next meeting even be? >> Yeah. Um probably not until
Oh golly. Um I mean >> something scribbled in December. I think that was just to come to attend the >> select board. Yeah. kind of their budget planning, right? >> Right. Which you're welcome to do, but is not really required.
>> We're not making the agenda for >> you can do remotely. >> Yeah. >> Yes. You can watch that one on RCTV. It'll be great. >> Or you can wait until the same presentation comes to us two months later. Um so or actually three months later um >> in March. Yes,
>> exactly. So all right. Um so yeah, I don't know what does it Yes. Hold on. I'm opening the website here. February 25th is the next one that we have us saved the date for. >> Yep. Well, I mean if >> February >> 25th
>> Okay. So, that's actually interesting. That's makes it so um when we did leazison reports um I forgot something um which was >> uh not the most recent select board meeting last night but the previous one. Uh not well yes the review of um so
>> you know we the finance committee um have asked the select board to um ask the state for a free review of the town's financial policies >> because it's none of them have been the last one the most recent ones were updated in August 2018 so it's been a
little while um and there are a number of things for which you know obviously that we have these processes but they are not documented as as policies um so there may the opportunities there. So, um Matt organized a call with um Sharon
was there, Jane was there. Um Karen Herrick from the select board is one of the leazison to us from the select board was there. Um I was there. Um I don't remember anyone else from our side, but then there were a couple folks from the state who talked about what they do. And
interestingly, they um uh apparently one way they like to do this is as a sort of a most of the day seminar event thing um where they get a bunch of people together in a room and have people like workshop things together like 9 to2 was
their usual schedule apparently. So, um, they asked us if we knew a good place to host, and Matt, uh, said, "Well, there's the community room at the library." Which sounded like exactly what they were describing as far as the space they were looking for. So, uh, I understand
Jane was reaching out to them with possible dates. >> Yep. We have a couple dates that we're holding. It looks I think the end of the January, >> right? End of January. So, this would be before our next meeting, which is why I'm I'm bringing it up now. Um so uh presumably we would be you know members
of the finest committee could come. We wouldn't have to make sure um you know I I would intend to be there. Um but uh we have to make you know if we have enough of us we have to post so be it. Um but um we can talk about scheduling
you know between now and that of course. Um but yeah that should be interesting. I think part of the thing is that they do it they do it as um they bring in uh like three maybe four communities to get that are all interested in doing review at the same time trying to get communities that are in some way
comparable um and they try to do it geographically and many of our peer communities are in fact also neighbor communities so um that should work out well. These are going to be the towns you would think of as as being similar. Um so yeah so that's a thing that's going
to happen and um you know there'll be representation from the select board and presumably school committee and so forth there but >> and then yes people in other towns as well so we can sort of compare our experiences and we can all cry about health insurance.
So, all right. Um, so that's I guess if we end up posting that would be a future agenda, but we can we can make that decision much closer to that since we don't have a date yet or anything. All right. Um, I'm not hearing any reason why we need to meet between now
and that policy seminar at the earliest or the budget presentation starting uh uh February 25th. It's after February vacation. That's key. Um, so all right then. In that case, we
have nothing else on Oh, we have minutes. Minutes. Thank you. All right. >> To approve the minutes of the October 15th meeting. >> Second. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> I wasn't. >> Thank you. I didn't have your Thank you.
Thank you. I heard it and I will, you know, state into the record now. Thank you, Jeffrey. Thank you, Joe, for the second. Uh, any further discussion before we vote? All right, let's vote. Uh, Ed, >> yes. >> Henry,
>> yes. >> Jeffrey, >> yes. >> Joe, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> Maryanne, >> and Joe Carneahan, yes. And that is in fact it for our agenda. >> Motion to return.
>> Second. Thank you very much, Emily. Thank you very much, Jeffrey. Uh, voting. Uh, Ed, >> yes. Hry, >> yes. >> Jeffrey, >> yes. Joe, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes.
>> Maryanne, >> yes. >> Joe Carneahan, yes. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you.