Speaker 2 (Town Hall Conference Room): So we have quorum on how this may be to work. Speaker 2 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think we'll start by introducing ourselves. I'm not sure who you know, but my name's Alan Foles, I'm the moderator. Town Hall Conference Room: I have Joe Carnahan, Finance Committee Chair. I'm Melissa Murphy, Select Board Chair. Town Hall Conference Room: And I will turn it over to you. Speaker 2 (Town Hall Conference Room): What banged your interest? What made you apply? Town Hall Conference Room: As for the final package. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Sure, I mean, I've, you know, been interested in, continuing to help out the town. I've kind of been, you know, taking on a few smaller roles previously, budget parent at Killam for a couple years. I had the opportunity to get, you know, some exposure to the finance side, I think, particularly on the school side there. I've been a town meeting member for
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I wanna say… Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): 6 were… I think 6 of the past 8 years, when the redistrate was done, I came in 26th, and so I had a brief vacation. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): And then I was, more recently involved in the superintendent, search committee, and, enjoyed, you know, collaborating with the group on that, and so really just looking for another avenue to kind of, you know, learn a little bit more, come back a little bit more. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Right? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Joel, Scott, you have any questions? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Sure. Speaker 2 (Town Hall Conference Room): So… Let's see.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): kind of, you kind of bring up the first two questions. What prompted your interest in finance committee? I guess maybe I'll ask, what prompted your interest in Finance Committee in particular? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think from my standpoint, you get a good… Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): view of the whole picture. That's the kind of way I like thinking about the world, I guess, in my professional life. I do drug development program management and span all the different aspects of things, so I kind of like being in a place where I could look at the whole picture and see kind of what's going on across, Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, you know, kind of take it all in, I guess.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's a good place to do it. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, that's a good, segue to my next question, which is, what is your experience with managing scarce for your resources, doing prioritization? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, so there's a fair amount of that in drug development. It's, you know, it's the same in terms of thinking about a big picture and trying to put things, you know, figure out what, you know, how to get everything to come together in a cohesive way. It's different in that the constraints are very different. You know, working in biotech, you know, as a program manager or program leader, very often the question you get
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): is. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): how can we make this go faster by spending more money? And that's not a question that really is necessarily going to be the type that's going to fall here. I think it's a different type of prioritization, but I think it's a related skill set, I guess. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, I'm curious if you've been watching any Finance Committee meetings. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Or otherwise following what we've been up to, and if you have any feedback on what you've seen us do. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I have… I've been watching, sort of, indirectly through, kind of, how things filtered into town meeting. I have to admit, I haven't been, you know, online, watching the week-by-weeks, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I've talked with Emily a little bit, about, you know, kind of the role of, the Finance Committee and some of, you know, her perspectives on it. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, you know, certainly, you know, looking at, you know, kind of… I thought it was particularly interesting to vote on, I guess, kind of form versus function to some extent in terms of Article 14 this year, and… and then, Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, I think thinking about, you know, where we are in terms of the line of, you know, free cash and what a 7% reserve looks like, and how those are on a collision course with crossing on most of the projection graphs, so…
Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, my last question, Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Is, do you have any ideas for, you know. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): How do you think running could better make use of its money? Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I think it's something, if anything, you've seen a town meeting. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, struck out around the ends. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): The current finance committee is perfect, I'm not gonna offer it. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): No, I mean, overall, my gesture Schult is that things are, you know, well run, and as new things come up, we need to continue to put them into good process, is sort of my impression at this point.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think there's… seems like there's been a lot of… Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): thought put into those kind of questions around big picture, you know, even at the most fundamental level of the structure, the fact that it's accommodated cost and not like there's some other town where they're doing things twice, once for the town and once for the schools, and so I think, you know, that kind of thoughtfulness in there, you know, it doesn't look like there are any big areas for it, but I think it's the, you know, the kind of thing we can all keep our eyes open for smaller areas of, Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): some rope. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): What's up? Yes, thank you. Thank you for coming in tonight, we appreciate it. In your professional life, can you give us…
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): or tell us your experience in reviewing, managing, forecasting, or developing budgets, financial plans? Yeah, so, you know, as a drug development program manager, really, you're looking at, you know, okay, what is this going to look like at sort of three levels of granularity? And usually I was partnered with someone from the finance committee, and so giving them a sense as to, okay, this is where we are quarter by quarter against what was in our original budget. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): again, in a different sort of way. These are the places where we think we might want to go and ask the board for something different, those types of questions, and flagging those early enough that it can get through the governance process of, you know, a public company.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, and then looking down the road at what does the whole picture of this drug development program look like. So for 3 years, you're quite granular in terms of what the spend's gonna be, and then you always have a model that, you know, includes you all the way through launch, and even a few years beyond, and, you know, making sure that that, you know, has a positive net present value and a reasonable IRR, the whole kind of piece in terms of making sure that obviously, you know. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): we're not looking at, you know, IRR capital returns here, but we are certainly looking toward a stable, continuous ongoing picture for the town, and so I think it's, you know, a similar skill set, and obviously you see that, you know, when you look at your, you know, the report on the warrant and things like that. You've got, okay, this is what we're putting in the budget for 27, and then you see, okay, we're thinking, this is what we think for 28, you know, you've got things like the capital plan and things like that. That's how we're kind of forecasting what, you know.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): what large items are pop… are popping in that are one time, and, you know, what you're using as a tool to hopefully help smooth that in the context of, you know, the rest of the contract budget. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Okay, and then, just another question. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): And considering the state we're in, and talking about an override, what do you think Ready's biggest financial challenges are going to be over the next 5 years? And how would you approach evaluating that? It's solutions, especially if an override does not pass. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Bob. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): But, you know, I think if an override, you know, doesn't… I think you kind of need to have a contingency for all of the scenarios. You can't wait until you get through that override process to decide what it's going to look like if it doesn't pass. You basically have to do double or triple the homework, depending on how you lay it out. That's certainly a necessity in the situation. That's actually also
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think important to the communication associated with an override. If you can't say to people, this is what the world's going to look like if we don't pass it, it's very hard to make a compelling case to, you know, to suggest that it's probably in the top interest to pass it, so… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): And I think just the last thing I would just… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I mean, clearly understand that we are going to be putting an override on the ballot, and, you know, FinCom, I think, is going to be a heavy lift over the next several months, just to keep that in mind as well, going into that, and that's something that you'll be able to accomplish with your professional life, your family life, and all that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I have a couple of quick questions that I ask everybody. First of all, do you know of any possible conflicts in your job while. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): quite late with being on the TV. Okay. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I don't… I… unless having someone who works in public education in a different town in Massachusetts, I mean, technically, like, they cross-reference and they say, oh, well, these are our peer towns, and things like that, so I guess if you were to make an extremely convoluted argument, you could say that I have an interest in teachers being well-paid, because I'm married. And the other question is, because it's not obviously today or in the near future, but if you should be.
Town Hall Conference Room: appointed to someday consider a leadership role. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I, you know, hadn't thought about it, you know, really thought about it in terms of that. I'm certainly not doing this because I have my eye on being the chair of the committee in X time, or really, you know, any other particular position in the town. It's really just an opportunity for me, you know, to give something back. You know, we've been in the town a little over a decade, really loved it, and then, Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): made out to learn more, maybe see if they, you know, if there's another avenue as well for taking that big contribut. Yeah, it is a good place to see.
Speaker 2 (Town Hall Conference Room): Any other, questions? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, thank you very much for coming in. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): There you go. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): We can make it for voluntary. Oh, yes, no worries. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Anybody up there? No. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, are you waiting for, okay? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's public, so you can hang out and watch if you like. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's your one, too. Yep. Oh, you're up, too. Oh, are you? Yep. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Hello, everyone. Hi! Someone in the hallway. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Is that… you were chilling in the hallway, is it? Yeah. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): I mean, you could have gotten a 5-minute head start on what the questions were. I mean, as if you didn't…
Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Fast. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): No on this, right? Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yes, okay. Alright, so we view the floor first. You're already on the meeting, but what are your thoughts on this? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I guess, but on the. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): Finance Committee for the last 3 years, and it's been an experience just kind of… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): See how the size was made. Then… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): kind of budget, you know, kind of a different part of how the town government works. I think certainly the big issues going forward are going to be the current budget situation and the upcoming variety of county…
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): With a passing override, or an override? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I don't received that. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Joe, questions? So, my first, I guess you… you wouldn't have any questions, because I have my common questions and my questions. So, my comment questions… what do you like about being on the fire today? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I like that there's kind of, you know, a good group, solid group of people on the committee currently. People have kind of different backgrounds. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Different… different points in our lives and topics that people might have. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Young kids that are still in school, there's people that are tired of those kids are out of school, so there's kind of a lot of different perspectives that all get brought together.
Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So what opportunities do you see what the finance committee could improve? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I could be… Oops. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I guess something that I feel like we don't get into enough is trying to understand the uncertainty within the town budget. Obviously. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Here's a breakdown, and this is, you know, the line item is our best estimate. We don't know Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): what line items Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): have the potential to be, you know, way higher or way lower than those estimates, versus something that might be a pretty solid on it.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): this is what we're gonna spend. So, like, we kind of know… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Salaries for different divisions and tactics. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): We have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be, and sometimes students leave and save money, or rehire somebody a little bit cheaper, but we have a pretty good idea of what size would be, but things like… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): snow removal, or, you know, placing groups that cave in or get hit by meteorites, or whatever. It missed time. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): It is, it's red. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank God. But there's… there's some that have kind of a wide, potential range, and I think that we could… I would like to see us try and do a better job of understanding, you know, what the… what the…
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Potential range of spending on different participants. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's actually… I'll make sure to pass on feedback to next year. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So what do you like about how the town manages the game? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I like that we are conservative with how we manage our money. There's, Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): tend to overestimate how much things are gonna cost, which I think is the way that my household also manages our money. I think we're gonna be intentionally conservative and assuming that things are gonna cost more than. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, I would say you can be pleasant surprise to me.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): They come in under. I think it's a lot better to kind of say we over-budgeted and have somebody left over that can say to me, oops, we under-budgeted and that we can't afford it. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Goodbye. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): And likewise, what do you see? Would it tell you any better about how to manage this fund? Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Swing back. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think we have missed some opportunities for new growth the past few years. I think that Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I mean, buying this clearly is obviously not… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, I have a lot of say for zoning and dial aspecting, but there's a lot of opportunity. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): On those fronts to encourage new growth to compete.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Let's add above that two matters. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's the right place for that answer. So that makes sense to me. I don't have any more questions. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): One sec. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you, John, for coming tonight. Do you mind giving me a little bit of, like, what your professional background is that you bring to FinCom? Sure. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I am currently the data analyst for the state's housing choice voucher Program within the Office of Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): housing in local communities. Okay. So I'm involved in Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): government resource management, I guess currently financial government resource management. Prior to that, I was a statistician with National Fisheries.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Government, natural resources, so… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Kind of statistical analysis and data analysis. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): And then… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): What do you believe are Reading's biggest financial challenges over the next 5 years? We know about the override, and how would you approach evaluating potentials? Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, so, my… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Professional capacity we are also facing. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): two issues, right? We leave… Approached it. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So that we're looking at, kind of.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Brainstorm a bunch of ways to save money, and then you have to look at not just Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): dollar amounts that you can come up with for XYZ2SC, but also Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): The number of your constituents that's going to be affecting negatively, the degree to which it's affecting them. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, how burdensome Proposal would be too intimate. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): you could say, we have this great idea, and it's gonna save us, you know, X millions of dollars, but there's no way, so we have to, you know, it's going to take…
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): 10 staff, 10 years to actually get this. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So that's kind of, like, the… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): overarching way that I would look at it, I think there's… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): on the Finance Committee, we are not doing all of this analysis, so I think we're kind of… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Relying on, maybe, town staff to bring some of those, proposals forward, and then… Town Hall Conference Room: Dave, cracks those fingers. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I generally ask two questions. You've been on for a while, so lots of things have changed. It probably doesn't matter. I always ask, do you have a known context?
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Nope. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): think so? I mean, I, have been very cognizant of that I'm a state employee. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): called up the State Ethics Hotline several times whenever, involved LBT communities came up, called them up and they generally got all clear. I think there's a couple of times where I put in Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So there's two different forms for conferences, like, for a national conference one, where you guys would have to approve me voting on that, and then there's the other one that just says, here's… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): a reasonable person could think that this is a conflict, and I think it's CC'd… at least you guys, you know, the last couple of years.
Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Galen and I have gotten past. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): They think that previous transplant. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's… it's a lot. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Generally, as I've been advised, I cannot reach out to the state on behalf of the Finance Committee for things, so if, like, we won't Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): asking HLC for money to do… I can't be the one that signs the letter. I can't… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): present on behalf of the state. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): None of that's come up. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think. I've been told, if we're making a request from the state, I can write the letter.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I just can't send you guys. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, the other question, they don't pretend to understand understanding is lost. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): I hate you. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): We've been enrolled on the committee for a while now. Could you see yourself someday called upon to, head up to next year? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Sure, I mean, if asked, if so, I'm not going out of my way to have more on my plate the next couple years. Yeah, so I think we have got Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): A lot of good, experienced people on the committee, so… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, if the group decided that I was the best person.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, true. Okay. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Any other questions? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Nope. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Kids are exactly the same age as my kids. You're smarter than me. Any other comments? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's great. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): The time we put in the market, too. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Appreciate it. Thank you, Patrice. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Mark, I see you hovering. Yeah? I was about to say, you can come in, that's something that's interesting, the incumbents are, like, hanging out on the. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's right.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): You were on deck. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): So… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Okay, so we'll give you the floor. What makes you want to come back? So, begin. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Still think I got a lot to give, so… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think, 6 years now, I've learned a lot, and . Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): turning on the ins and out. It does take a few years to figure things out, so… Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, so that's, my main reason I think I sell a lot to contribute, so…
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Michelle, fair question. So. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): This is similar to Alan's opening question, but, you know, the first question I ask is, what do you like about being on a finance committee? Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, Mike, I think we, make a difference, to be honest with you. And, I like the, roof that's on it, too. I think, Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's always been good the six years that I think we all Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): get along, it's pretty civil in that. You know, it's, it, you know… A lot of fist bites? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yes, we haven't.
Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's very respectful. I think even… you know, there's times when we don't agree, but I don't think, Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, it doesn't ever get nasty. People respect each other, so it's… It's been good. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Or I wouldn't want to be on it if it wasn't, so… Huh. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So you're gonna be a screen. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): things up next. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, what are. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'm curious to see what the Finance Committee could approve. That would be better. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): To me, my showroom. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Maybe at the, I think we've done a little bit better at the job of this, but probably give a little bit more background on some of the warrants.
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): That, what our thinking is. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): We've done a little bit of that, I think, this last spring, but . Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, probably a little bit more than that. I think that would help top me in that risk. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Because not everybody's watching the company needs, I'm sure that stuff. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Probably not. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): For their sake, I hope. Alright, so, what do you like about how the town manages its money? It's a broader question, not just background. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, I like that, Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): that we've got substantial free cash, which is good. I don't think we're tight.
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I gotta say, you know, Sharon's done a good job. You know, investing has been good, and Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I think that, you know, the last override was quite a ways, you know, a while ago, so I think, I think the town's had to jump there. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Financially wise, that's what the question was. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): And then my, my last question is the complement of that one, which is, what do you see that the town could do better about how it manages its funding? Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): I would say communication, maybe. I think sometimes.
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think… Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): people kind of blindly. It could be that people aren't paying attention, too. They're just, you know, Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): It does seem like things happen, and people don't… even, like, building a new school, there's some people who don't have a clue that it's going on, so… Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yup, it's, I'd probably say, communication thing, you know, proactively, Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Cool. Thank you. Listen. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming tonight, I appreciate it. Can you give me a little info of, like, what your professional and how your professional life is, and how you bring that to the board, like how to set it?
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, I think… so my background was as a CFO, so I had… Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, and that's probably… I mean, I do see a lot in that. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): happens at the top. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): That would never happen in industry. So I have to be patient, some of that. But I do think, you know, I… I'm done working, so I sold my company, years ago, so… Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, I'm not working now, but, I do do some documentaries.
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): But people were starting to have these systems. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I, I, you know, that was my experience. Yeah, no, perfect. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): That totally makes sense for a comment. And then the other question I had is. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): We all know about the override that's gonna be hitting the ballot in November, but what do you think Freddie's biggest financial challenges are over the next 5 years, and how would you approach value-based solutions? Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): biggest financial challenges, I think. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): child. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): I would say. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's, it's, budgeting and communication, I think. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): And we'll see it, you know, with the override talk, because I'm sure a talk will come in of, you know.
Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, we looked at expenses, and that'll be… need to be communicated. So I think that's probably the biggest challenge here. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. I was actually curious, how long have you been on this year? Three years or 6 years? Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): 6 years, 6 years ago. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'm about to say, this is his last time around. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I was thinking. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): covered it in. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, the ethics stuff you gotta do in my life. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Good stuff. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): The chastity. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): I figured, because he's right, it does take a couple years. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): to participate, right? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, segueing into that, do you know of any, conflicts you might have? I know you're tired of those.
Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yes, I need to help with any business? So. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): etc. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): And if the need arose over the next few years for a new chair, that's something that you would. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): considering? Yeah, that gets… that gets asked every time. So yeah, that is asked. Yeah. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): All right. Any other questions? Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): How about you, any other comments? No. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for everyone. Thank you for having me. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, baby. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): See ya.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Step on. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think you probably know everybody did. I can't remember that. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's the time. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Joe. Joe Carnahan. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): How are you figure? Nice to go. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's Matt. I said, you're tipping chairs, but really, it's table. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): get a present, so… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Fine, yep. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): We're behind you, in front of you. Yeah. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): My biggest mistake was the hike. He. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): truck pulls from the truck.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Hospital. Had the best… Buffins. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): intro. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's amazing. I never worked for him. It's amazing how much free time I got when she belongs to. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, well… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'll give you the floor. What makes you come to part of the, finance committee? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, being retired, 10 years from the police department, getting a little extra time, so, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I was a town meeting member for 25 years, back in the day.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Numbers type of guy, and… So, involved in the… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Health Assurance Bargaining Committee on the, actually. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Retiree representative appointed by the town… by the, state. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, conserving that… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): contract that we just signed with the town. We're looking at saving $3.9 million over the next 3 years. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, I think it's gonna be a little bit more than that. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): We addressed that contract as we did when I was on the police department and the province union, trying to get a fair contract. Something that's both
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Good for the people that work in it, but at the same time. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): working for the, town has to happen. And conversely, the third part, which a lot of people forget when they're doing any of this stuff, is the taxpayers. And most of the town people that work for the town Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): live in town, so it's a kind of a dual thing, but, it comes back to that, and being, like I said, kind of a numbers guy. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): To me, defend crime is always something that I was always interested in, but I didn't have the time, which I don't…
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, what I do is that when I can evolve with something, I… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I need to have the time, and right now, it's… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Not much will be opened up. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I have time, my wife would certainly appreciate it. So, kind of like your type of thing, you know? It's amazing how much… yeah. So, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Between Crom is… Probably one of the key components of the town. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Where everything goes from them. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And I think we can… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Keep the high crime rate that we have, and continue to focus on moving the town in a positive direction.
Town Hall Conference Room: anymore. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Couple questions again. So. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): my initial questions overlap with Alan, so I'm figuring anything else that I, Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Like, I would ask about specific areas about town government expertise, which can't be able to appropriate police officer about, so… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Is there any other area of town government that you've been involved in over the years? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): You said town meeting for about 25 years, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): As far as being involved with the town, I mean, I coach a number of different sports. I was involved with, helping to bring lacrosse to the town, which we're now celebrating our 25th year. Just dedicated the field to, Charlie Hardy.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I was in the… I got involved with that, and after the 3-hour meeting. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think Charlie said, anybody have any questions? I put my hand up. Does she have power? What is it? I go, what's lacrosse? Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): You're like, it's true. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, she says, just sat in a 3-hour meeting. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): and you're willing to help out, but you don't know what lacrosse is. I go, I have no idea. I grew up in East Boston, moved here in 73. I go, no. He goes, why do you want to help? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Because if there's another way, and I was a community service officer at the time, I was the first community service officer, we have a way of helping more kids get involved in this sport or something else, because there really wasn't a lot of
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): type of things to do, you know, whether it's a bowling alley, I mean, in town type of thing. If there's something more that we can do to give kids more opportunity to get involved. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I was all for it, so, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Dove into that, and we were hoping to get 50 kids at the opening Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): skills competition we had at the, at the Fields House. We had 250 kids showed up. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Phil Biccaro walked in, said, Phil, how's it going? He put him like this, he goes. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's like I'm gonna go on to two more banquets coming the,
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): spring every year, so, as you know, the program has taken off, and it's one of the most elite in the state, so… and that's not my good team. I didn't coach, I don't really game, but I did the athletic director stuff, so… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, next question, which is going down my list here, what is your experience with managing scarce resources during prioritization? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, related back to the police department, when budgets were tight, and… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): People had… we actually had layoffs, Back then, and…
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): it's… everybody's gotta tighten their belt, and you have to do more with less, and to a point where you can't sacrifice safety of the people that are working, or the safety of the public. So you have to balance that, and that's where I think you have Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Communication with both the management side, so we did it with the chief on down, communicating what our things were, because there were Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): We didn't have minimum manning in the contract, but we did have a minimum manning as far as Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): to have people responding to calls, you've had to have a certain number of boxes out there, plus command staff to be able to, oversee the shift. So, having a working relationship with management is important, so you provide the safety to both the officer, public, and the department.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Use liabilities, you don't have lawsuits, and so on. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, I don't, don't know if you've had a chance to watch any, Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): meetings, recent or otherwise, and I don't mind me if you don't. But, do you have any feedback on what you've seen the current finance video? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I did watch, one when we were involved with the, health insurance to see what that was, and I did get parts of one, another time I was watching, but sometimes the audio and so forth, it's…
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Some of the meetings were around… There were some issues. There were, yeah, there were some issues, yeah, so, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I tried to watch a couple of them. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): All right, so, and then my, my last question is, do you, do you have any ideas for how writing could better manage its mind? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I see some of the things that are happening now that happened back when I was first involved with, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): town meeting and so forth, and the shape of some of the buildings that are happening now are probably going to have to be readdressed, like this building here, renovated back in 88, 89.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Probably needs to have something to… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Let's not wait till the roof is caving or whatever else. Let's try to be proactive about it. The senior center. Let's not get rid of that. We may have to ship half of the town hall into there as a temporary office, you know, once the other… the recal is up, but let's not… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): be quick to sell something when we may need it. You know, things along that nature. Pearl Street School, perfect example. We used against it back in the day to sell it.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): For $325 million, we could have renovated it, and then we sold it for $385. Couple years later, we're building for $15, $18 million. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): the, Wood End School. So, I mean, some of the… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): communication between departments, I think, needs to be better enhanced when they need to know what their long-term goals are. At the same time, I think a lot of it comes through the FinCom, where Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): The FinCom needs to be able to have a better idea on what the capital projects are that can really affect
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): The long-term goals of the community. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. That's it for me. Awesome. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming in, Pat, I appreciate it. Sorry. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Can you give us, tell us your experience of reviewing, managing, or forecasting budgets. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, like I said, recently we just did the, health insurance, and Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): working with, Jane, Sean, and Sharon. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): it was… it was a different group of people, and I can comfortably say that if we didn't have that management team in place.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): That agreement would not have happened. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): It was… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And the way we approached the negotiations was totally different than what we had in the past. Usually, going into any negotiations, there's usually a laundry list. They give you a laundry list. It takes a couple of meetings. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And then you get down to what you want to do. We started right off with presenting what we felt was a fair, equitable list of options. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Both sides didn't get what they wanted, but at the end, the employees took on a greater burden by now having to do a deductible program, which they hadn't had. And I was involved with the… when it was the old Insurance Advisory Committee back in 86, so I was…
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): part of it way back when, when Peter first started that. Then when they turned into the PPC, I was the first president there, so I, Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): A lot of history there, but a lot of people on the Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): bargaining unit that we had, had experience with it. I worked with the town team on what we had. We focused right away on what we can do to best Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Again, address all three areas. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And we did that, with that, contract. And, town wasn't happy with it, the Slick Boy was, I believe Fincom, I don't think I had a chance to look at that.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): But I mean, between that, and over 3 years, it's… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's gonna be, a win-win-win for everybody. Residents, employees. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Chow, and that's… that's how we… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): like to be. We… we don't want to be at the top. I mean, we'd like to be at the top, but realistically, that's not fair. We don't want to be in the bottom. We've always tried to strive being in the middle in comparison to other communities of our size and our demographics. And this contract is, is going to get us here. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): As you know, we're gonna have an override on the ballot in November. What do you think Freddie's biggest financial challenges are over the next 5 years? Do you have any…
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Do you have an approach to evaluating that and coming up with solutions? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I don't think the override's gonna pass. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think the, like, the Killen School project myself, I think that should have been… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Done 5 years earlier, just my own personal bank. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think that if there's a number that's presented Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): directly, and if… I heard the other guys talk about, communication. Communications of prop is very important with the residents, but I think education is going to be a big part of it, too. You have a higher senior population that's on fixed income, and overrides, as we know, are permitted.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): It is needed. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): If it's done correctly. Town Hall Conference Room: having… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): the Killam School with the Senior Center, which also was needed, both at the same time. And then afterwards, realizing that there's some components that wasn't totally figured in there. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): That drives residents nuts. So… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): We all have to do a better job in educating the residents on where it's happening and where it's going. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): But again, you have a very large senior population, which are part of that, but we need to
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): keep the character of the town. I mean, that's what I… when I got married, I stayed in town, my family grew up in town. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's a great town to raise a family, and a lot of people come here for that reason, and the population has grown. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I mean, for 20, 30 years, it was around 22, 21,000. Now we're 25, 26, so we've had a jump in the population. People aren't coming here because they don't like… it's a good community to be here. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): A lot of schools, you know, they're very good. Public safety, EPW.
Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): everything that makes Reading the community that we are is why it's there, and… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I feel I can contribute by being on the FinCom to continue that type of Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's how I… how I… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Cool. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, so that's my theory. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): My only other question was, because I have a big lift, but you said you're retiring, so… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): My wife says too much. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I have a couple questions. You're retired, so first thing's probably important, but do you know that. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Conflict. I do not. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Another is if the lead came up this year, or next year, the year after that.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): share was needed. Would that be something we might step up to? Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): If it. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): came to that, and I was comfortable enough to do that, and I… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Have the, support of, like, the committee. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I believe I'm doing… You know, you feed a job when it comes to, you know, not… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): jumping right into it, but I mean, you have to get… you have to have the ability of knowing Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): what the ins and outs of committees are, and working with the different departments, so being chair is important, but we work with select board. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Other town officials and so forth, so it could be a smooth transition between.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Any other questions from… do you have any final thoughts? Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Permits? Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): No, I just think that the FinCon is probably one of the most important committees in town. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, I think a lot of people really don't realize Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): how much work goes through the FinCon. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, like, when people ask me, like, why do you want to be unfit? And you go, what do they do? It's like. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): You don't know what FinCon does? It's like… Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): But, again, goes back to the education part. So, it's true. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for an opportunity, everybody.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Appreciate it. Good night. You too. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Mr. Burke? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Al? What? Yes, I was here last year. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, okay. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's great, so what's your start, then? Sure. Introduce yourself and tell me. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Year. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): for itself. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): Sure. So, Chris Cook on Grove Street, it's my second time. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'm in front of the employment committee. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): obviously. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Last year, about being successful. Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'd like to join the community. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): and trust funds, wrapping up my first year of a three-year term there. It's been fun, since I.
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I moved to writing. I've tried to get out of town meeting the past couple years, unsuccessful, so I'll keep trying. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): In some prior towns that I used to live in, I was a finalist for a retirement board in Somerville in years past. Also an applicant for the finance committee, did not get on there. But, spent the last 20 years of my career in banking or banking regulation, mostly on the regulatory side. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I do work for the Division of Banks, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, manager of the office. And obviously. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): like the work on the Commission on Trust Funds, definitely a… I say a sleepy board, it's a little quieter, and obviously the Finance Committee is probably, you know, the most
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): impactful board next to the select board, where you can actually make a difference, and serve and really, review some valuable topics. So, interesting to get my feet wet, in that committee. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Great. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Joel, patience. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, let's see, Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Okay, so I'm saying that you talk about your background, your, you know, curtivate and so forth. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Are there any, like. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Apart from, sort of, income in particular, are there specific areas of town government in which you have interest or experience?
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): government? No, I haven't worked for a town. I've certainly attended a ton of, select board meetings, a few FinCom. I stick to mostly data recaps, obviously meetings go very long. Late at night, I have two kids, one's 3 on Thursday, the other one's 3 months, so that's just the runback meetings. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): it's not people, so it's heavy stuff, that stuff, I understand. But, and obviously not working in the trust fund, so kind of more interaction with our account treasurer, kind of getting the lay of the land of the Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): $22 million we have in trust funds that, honestly, I hope the town gets a little more visibility for that, because I think, obviously, with tough budget times, I think we can tap into some of those resources for some needs.
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): In the future, you know, the hospital trust funds are growing at an astronomical rate, and you can't spend money faster. So, other than that, no, obviously, just continuing to just keep an eye on, you know, meetings and reading a bunch of documents. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, then, next, Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Question is. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Tell me about your experience with managing scarce resources or doing some kind of prioritization. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Sure, so at the Division of Banks, obviously, depending on what administration's in charge, we have about budget issues. I can recall during a prior administration, we used… we had significant budget control put in place, we had key caps.
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): So obviously, even though it wasn't part of the decisions on, you know, slashing expenses or increasing revenues, because we paid by assessments, obviously with, FC caps, you have to basically be told, do more with less. That's what we did, so we obviously tried to Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): gain as much efficiency as possible on the job, and obviously managing budgets, from a human capital standpoint on examinations and things like that. So, fortunately, I don't have any direct impact on the budget, but luckily enough, we are paid by assessments and not taxpayers, so we do have a little bit of… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, do you have any feedback on what you've seen the current tax money do?
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I would say the meetings can be tough to watch in person, but I think what I would say, kind of piggyback on these prior conferences, is more information, the better, and information that is visually appealing for the average resident, because obviously reading a 198-page PDF, Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): It is difficult, and those without a financial acumen, even basic level, have struggled to understand, like. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): where does all of my taxes go? What percentage goes where? That sort of self-deterrence. And I've seen some other talents kind of use OpenCheckbook or other, Tableau data visualization tools that… now, obviously these budget videos that come down were pretty… not bad, but having more interactive, tools, I think, would be helpful, especially with
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): We'll be on those coming, later this year with, the convergence of, you know, an override number, the debt service coming on for the projects, and possible CPA vote. So, trying to really explain everyone the numbers behind that, would be key. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, do you have any ideas for how you think Brett could better manage its money? Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think a few things. Obviously, the Select Board did a big step with the agreement with the PEC, because obviously health insurance is one of those budget numbers that rises well above Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Inflation, in two and a half. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): So anything you can do to reduce costs on that directly and spread the costs on that. I think the next big one that I mentioned last year was kind of our pension
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): cost is another one that routinely exceeds the 2.5% limit. So, I believe the retirement board did kick out their schedule one year, which does provide some breathing room. But I think doing something, like, or considering a pension obligation bond, taking advantage of borrowing rates being below the discount rate, creating an arbitrage to save more money on a basis, which again. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's going to be key when, you know, we're facing a relatively large override number, and, you know, the alternative is if it fails. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Playoffs are absolutely on the table, there's no question. Boston's looking to lay off one or two, Somerville's looking to lay people off.
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): you see dozens and dozens of overrides, mostly fail, across the state, and have to go back to the, back to the voter a second time. So, I think that's another big one, and obviously someone brought up a good point about new growth, outside of. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): direct revenue from current sources. Having a economic and business environment in this town that's competitive around the area and, regionally is going to be key if you want to attract new investment to provide new revenue that does not increase margin costs, to your database. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Makes sense. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Carvin and Chris? Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Same question I kind of asked everyone else. Can you give us, your experience in reviewing, managing, forecasting, or developing budgets and financial plans, and how that will allow you to contribute to income? Sure. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, from a professional standpoint, my role in the prior past when I was bank exempt, obviously reviewing banks. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): projections, finished projections, budget attrition plans, which is a core part of the job, so I've had a lot of experience over the years looking at, 1- and 3- and 5-year projections.
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): criticizing management boards when necessary, really attacking assumptions if I had to. And obviously, in the past, during my time in prior towns, you know, again, spending a ton of time, spending time on town budgets, really understanding, sources of revenue. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): source of top expenses, obviously accommodated costs for something that we can't control, so we can't. So I've obviously been involved with that, and obviously just… Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): personal budgets, you know, sacrifices have to be made. I am a state employee, I did not get a cost of living adjustment last year, and all my costs went up, and you just have to make do, unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): What do you believe besides, we know the overrides on the ballot, so what do you believe Reading's biggest financial challenges are over the next 5 years, and how would you approach evaluating some solutions? Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I don't want to say it's… it is tied to the override, but in theory it is, because if… if we don't disclose and provide information that this override Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): is gonna be worth it, and also how the next… you have to be really clear the next 5 years when the next one will be, or we're going to state it off the next 5 years. The projections really need to be really tuned up, and I think, whether it be by policy or by structural motion, I think the direction needs to be given to the
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): select board or town manager that we really should not… we should probably never build budgets again using free cash continuously, because once you use it once, it just continues to grow and puts us in the situation, so… Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think it would be a good… Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): selling point to say, yes, we're going for 4, 5, 6, 7, whatever the number may be. However, to hopefully avoid this in the future, or within an extended time period, we're going to commit to keep our cash reserves at this level, and not build the assumption we're going to use free cash to pay for operational expenses. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): if that kind of policy needs to be either implemented, or at least spirit followed. I think that would really show the town that, you know, the finance committee time meeting, Select Board is on board of
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): keeping our budgets as tight as possible going forward. But, you know, we all know the cost side continues to ride well above 2.5 plus in growth. It's… Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's just unfortunate. And maybe it does mean we have an override 3, or maybe it's only $5 million, or maybe it's 500,000, maybe, you know, if we have the kind of projections that clearly show, yes, this is the number this year, we know in year 4 it's gonna be this, be prepared, we understand this, we're trying to come in. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Disclosure as much as possible. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): And the last question I have is that with the override coming up, it becomes going to be probably a heavier lift with some more meetings? Is that something you think that will be trickier?
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Now, I think I can handle it. I have a pretty flexible work schedule, and obviously, I assume I'd have to resign from the commercial trust funds, with this appointment, if that was the case, so, that's obviously one less thing, one less thing to get into, but I think I can accommodate, between work and kids, and then soccer. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): everything like that, so obviously I know it's a lot of work that goes on, many hours that goes on in line seats other than FinCom meeting time, building a bunch of messages, reviewing, documents, and working. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Johnson. Speaker 8 (Town Hall Conference Room): Confident. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): They can make it work. Fantastic.
Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming into the issues. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): I noticed you work for the state. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): there are king plans. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): any… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): complex, you know. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): No. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think, same as last year, I, obviously I follow the SEC Ethics Commission rules, I have a specific conflict of interest policy in banks, and I've had to kind of conserve with the Commissioner Trust Funds, but there is a conflict. Obviously, I'm not signing any bond offerings or anything, so… Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's the only thing. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): And if you should get appointed sometime far up in the future, I'm not talking. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): this year or next year, would you consider taking leadership role? Yeah, definitely, I think moderate for long-term. I think near term, obviously, it takes multiple years to get up to speed on the process of this, how this income operates and interacts with Tommy as compared to other tax. And obviously, I don't think it would be fair to…
Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): want to try to make sure… and obviously, in the future, if I support the other paying 500 side of that. Speaker 10 (Town Hall Conference Room): Okay, thank you. Any other questions? No. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you, thank you for offering your time. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, good night! Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): I do, if not. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I'll let you introduce yourself and tell us first. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): What brings you to turn on? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, that's fine. So, Caribbean Avenue, a couple bucks there.
Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): So… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I've been in town for about 6 or 7 years. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): At this point, I've, also volunteered as, Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): committees, including the climate committee, as well as the library landscaping Committee, and the town meeting, showing the council is volunteering. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): position. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): The reason I'm interested in FENCOM is because it'll give me an additional… it's kind of a personal reason, it'll give me additional insight into how the town actually operates. I'm already involved with, like, working away what the town's spending the money on during the town meeting. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Might as well get additional insight into this as well.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, I'm also kind of, excited about the challenge, especially the upcoming, right? This is a new thing for me. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): like, this general topic. I have not done finance for the town in the past, so I enjoy learning new things and doing things. And lastly, I think this will allow me to also just keep on contributing to the town, is to have them for specific care. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, so that's my interest and a little bit of a background. Thank you. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): So. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, so, let's see, so, I know about your.
Speaker 1 (Town Hall Conference Room): your previous… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): an interest in time government and what you've been able to participate in so far. tell me more about what's your experience with managing scarce resources and doing prioritization. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, that's, like, a daily life for me. So I work as a defense contractor, and I work on projects that have very tight deadlines, very, very tight budgets. So… Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): It is on a daily basis when we're balancing things. We're balancing personnel.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): And, trying to make sure that we execute it correctly based on what, say, in this case, the customers need. So, we're writing that will be in the residents. In my field, that's not rules. So there is a need for continuous, discussion, and make sure that all things that are Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Necessarily are being able to be hit with, with another reasonable time frame. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Do you have any feedback on what you've seen the current finance committee do? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I think that's…
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think that you folks do a great job of trying to communicate with the town, and certainly generate quite a lot of information, but I think it could be very intimidating for folks who are not plugged into it as much as Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): new bar. There's a lot of jargon, there's a lot of… it's very rapid fire, so the cost of entry doesn't Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): the barrier of entry into understanding what is actually happening is fairly high. I think that an improvement could be made if you were to distill some of the complex information. I think it's already been mentioned by a couple of individuals thus far. If you could distill it such that a regular
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Resident who is not spending 3, 4, 7 hours a night at a meeting is able to comprehend this. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): something that I do at my work quite often, although it's not focused on the finance side of things, it's more focused on the technology side of things. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Got it. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): more broadly than the Finance Committee, do you have any ideas for how writing could better manage its money? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think we've done a pretty good job as a town. We've pushed off override for an exceptionally long, long amount of time. I think that long-term investment is something that I see this town lacking. We…
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): I feel as though we tend to kick the can down the road, and it ends up costing us a little bit more. And the… Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): This is all wrapped up in the same thing, but I think the problem stems from us being very hesitant to Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): put money down for long-term investment, because we're afraid of what the residents might think. We're afraid of Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): scaring people, telling them that their taxes will go up. And I think that that also stems from our inability to properly communicate with the residents, and being able to instill these complex.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): multi-page financial reports is something that I can easily digest in 10 minutes, and make a decision of, you know what, I will be supporting this up-and-coming thing, because it will end up saving us money in the long run. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming tonight, I appreciate it. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): How will your professional life and FinCom overlap? Do you have any overlap in those, or what will you bring to FinCom from your professional life? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, in my professional life, I do work with budgets quite a bit. So,
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): At a high level, the U.S. government will state a problem, and INTY is a solution. Okay. And that solution looks technical, but I can't just deliver that. That doesn't exist yet. So I have to come up with a plan how to do that. So that does involve me sitting down. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Writing out a lot of different tasks that would go into executing that. Assigning people to those tasks. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): and assigning budgets to those statuses. I don't know a lot of the, Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): line items individually, so I need to go out and discuss this with other subject matter experts, and pull their information to this, larger, sort of, what's a responsive proposal as effectively.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I'm accustomed to having in-depth discussions with people from different domains, and I'm comfortable, sort of, navigating those avenues. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): You kind of answered the second question about, you know, your experience with reviewing, managing your forecasts and budgets, because that kind of sounds like it all kind of goes together when you make those plans to come up with a solution. Sure. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Besides an override, we all know it's coming. What do you believe Reading's biggest financial challenges are over the next 5 years, and how would you approach evaluating some solutions?
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I think the thing that we're constantly struggling as a town is the lack of revenue from non-presidential taxes. We do not have a very large commercial base. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): It would be awesome to see it expand. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): However, that… Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): comes into, sort of like a trade space, where then we also have to… conscientiousness is what kind of Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): changes we're implementing to expand that, commercial base. So some folks would prefer to take this down, you know, small, not change the character of it. Let's say that expanding that base would, you could be smart about it, you could be proactive about it, but I think balancing that.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): it's going to be kind of difficult. And… Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Also, maintaining, engagement with the residents. So we'll hopefully pass this override, right? If we don't pass it this year, it's gonna hurt and pass it eventually. Being able to… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): continued. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): communications with the residents, so we've passed the override rate. What are we now spending the money on? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): What are the things that would be in jeopardy in the future? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think that's one way to…
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): people in, and give them an opportunity to be more engaged, if you let them know what is potentially about a chopping block, because there's always going to be something on the chopping block, and it's going to adversely affect some residents. They should be aware of it, even if it's further down the line of, you know, years down the line. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): With overhead discussions, if it helps kind of be a heavier lift, I think, than almost, but that would be an issue for you to commit to that. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's interesting, yeah.
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think that's a hit to you. I don't know. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's okay. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alright, thank you very much for coming, and I appreciate it. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Couple of quick. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): questions. I'm looking at the resume, so I probably know the answer, but do you know of any known conflicts anymore? No, there really shouldn't be. And the other is, if you. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): get appointed sometime off of… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): The need rules for a chair. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): be interesting. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): And that would you take? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, absolutely. So that's how I ended up being the chair of the planning committee. I didn't ask for it, just after a prolonged, awkward silence.
Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's just sad. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Similarly, for the writing, Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): For the Library Landscaping Committee, when we started that first year, there wasn't anyone who Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): We can volunteer to be in a chair, and so I ended up stepping up. It was a good, good exercise, I get to learn quite a bit. So, no, I wouldn't really have any issues in a chair, but I've never… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): seek attention. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Any other questions? Anybody? Any comments from you? Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'm all set. I appreciate you folks.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming in. Thank you. Thank you. You too. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): That is very good. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): You really know everybody's coming. Yeah. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Hey, let's start with you, just… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): What brings you back about the chart? Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, I'm… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): I've written some notes. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank. Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Later Folds, Chair Kellyan, Chair Murphy. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'd like to give you some reasons. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think it… Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): would be good. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): to reappoint me to the Finance Committee for my final term. I kind of have
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): five key points I can elaborate. The first is. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think, especially given, the issues that are facing the town, it's important, as much as possible, for stability and knowledge on the Finance Committee. I believe I have a proven record of dedication to the Finance Committee. My opinions is perfect, other than Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): the one day I missed the day after my father passed away. I tried to go beyond. I had time in the past on the ARPA committee. I served as vice chair. I'd be willing to serve higher. Last year, I didn't want that role because I had started a new job, and also because of
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): health issues in my family, with my parents, so… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I have more time now, but at that last year, I didn't want to… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): go… I served as vice chair, but I needed to take a break from that leadership. So, I think I have a record of commitment, reliability, and service. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I believe it's important at this time to have members of the Finance Committee with experience with writing budget cycles. I've been through at least a half dozen of them. I understand, between working on ARPA and on Finance Committee, our financial structure
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): And what… how the town runs, what things have to happen, what things are optional, what are the challenges we face. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Alluding to my job, and probably getting ahead to answer some of your questions. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I'm in a job where I'm managing, a share of a $20 million legal budget, for which we were told this year we had to cut 40%. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, every month I'm reviewing outside counsel bills, I'm looking how to streamline spend. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): execute my share on… we have 17,000 patents, a bunch of attorneys, I manage about 1,000 patent families, so knowing what we can spend, knowing what we can take on our business as a customer, so I deal with those kinds of things, and significant cuts
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Already in my… in my daily life. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Again, I think with the serious financial challenges we're facing, as many people as we can have with institutional knowledge is important. I've also… I've lived in this community for 25 years, so I've seen a lot of things come and go in Reading, a few different town managers, Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I've been on town meeting since 2015, so I've seen how that goes. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I agree with some of the things I've heard a couple of people before me, that I think we need to improve our communication to the community.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): in one of my… in my first term on Finance Committee, I worked with, former member Jeannie Borowski to try to approve the FinCom website and have direct links to budgets and some simplified information. I think we can be the link to some of the override questions coming up with Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): What happens to really kind of explain what we've said in the forums, that, you know, the accommodated costs, health insurance costs. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I respect that many in our community are facing similar challenges in their home life with their own insurance, and the more we can analogize things to their kinds of budget and what they're seeing.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): they will understand. But that's another challenge I think we face, which is Reading is a very diverse community. We have people that can afford Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): 20% increase in their property taxes without a link, and other people where even the CPA increase of another $100 a year, $150 a year, would be overwhelming. That's why I was one of the people Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): the only person on FinCom who voted against CPA, not that I don't favor what it does, but that I wanted to take a pause in favor of
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): let's… let's do what we have to do first. But I'm still open to it, but we have to respect that we have a very diverse community. So, and finally, I've really enjoyed being on FinCom. I like being… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Getting to see all the other boards, and . Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): whether you're starting out volunteering for the community, or whether you've been in a long time, it's the best board. We get along great. We've been trauma-free. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Okay. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I hope to continue that. So, that's… that's my spiel.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Joe, questions? Yes. So. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): See, alright. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): what do you like about being on the Finance Committee? He was deliberately the last thing you said. So let me go on to my next question, which is, what opportunities do you see when the Finance Committee can approve? Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): We need to add to our website. We haven't done that in a while, and again, it's probably going to be linking to the override. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): it was Mr. Cook who mentioned the open checkbook, and that may involve a fee. Like, I don't think the town can just do that, but something analogous, even to have it so that someone doesn't have to go to a link and look at the budget, because yes, the link is there.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): who knows how to read, as someone here said, a 200-page PDF. We need to do it in a page. I mean, even people are looking at things on their phones, I don't know if we can. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Summarized. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): important things on their phones, but it ought to be at least just a page, something snapshot. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Right. And. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I don't think we, we've had some emails, and there's been issues about emails, but I think people don't… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Feel free to contact us as much as other points. Maybe that's good or bad, but
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I don't know if we have have, like, the idea of an open office hours once a quarter, but maybe… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): a chance other than the Finance Committee forums, which usually it's just us in select word N. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): school committee and the tenor, so die-hard people who always come in at every, at every meeting. Like, if it's, you know, open, open hours. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): a couple of times a year for people to ask questions of the Finance Committee. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): We can try it once and see, and see what happens. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): I need to ask this, like, where other office hours go, for…
Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): match. Cool. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): So what do you like about Health Town Manage this morning? Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I like the creativity of Sharon. I think we'd be in a lot of trouble without her. I like how the Newtown Manager is also. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): For example, to ways to save money. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): And I think I appreciate that, Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): They keep doing more and more and less and less. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): And I like that. And… I think we want a lean machine. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): But I think, also, For example, with the recount project, having to tell everybody, okay, not only did you
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): your tax is going to go up $800, but now we need between the Killum and the Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): senior center side of it, we're going to need a million more in operating expenses. I… when I've talked to people with that, you know, approximately a million, people are… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): people are shocked. I've looked at things like, well, we have to hire two more custodians. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): custodians. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Are we gonna have to tell them, well, we have this new building, but the override does the cast, we have to close at weekends? Like, I feel like… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): The town, when we had a project like that. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): We could have done a better job projecting out.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): operating costs to people, I don't know that it would have changed it. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): And it's not… Huh. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's not as egregious as, like, what happened, I think, with the previous override when it didn't pass the first time, and people… it was so close to the library expenses, and people felt like, oh, you weren't telling us. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): these things, I don't know, there was a few reasons why that didn't pass. I think we have a better Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): We're better grounds now, but we have a really short time, which I already expressed in the financial forum. It bothers me. I think it's a short time to educate people.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): when I look at what happened when we had the yes for running… Speaker 12 (Town Hall Conference Room): So… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): But I think the town's communicating better than it was 8 years ago. Speaker 7 (Town Hall Conference Room): Does that answer your question? Yeah, no, you… Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): That answers my question and half-answers my next question, which was, what do you see that the town could do better about how it manages its money? And you've talked about communication, operating… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thinking things out fully, not like, yeah, we're working on that. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): everybody… but we're just being honest if they don't have the answer, I guess.
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): There's some things that… some things that are going to be unknown, but people. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Who thinks through, especially if you've lived here a while. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): You see it. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, there's gonna be costs with that. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I think we've been good with the library that we had. We renovated it, but I don't know that the cost went way up. That was an example. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): of a good. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): A good change that the library budget, you know, scaled. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Appropriately, not… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): change. You mean the operating budget? The operating budget, yes. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, the library itself. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): But it went high, but I mean, the operating budget, it's been pretty low. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you.
Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Listen. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): You've answered a lot of my questions already, but… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): like I've asked the others, what do you think our biggest financial challenges over the next 5 years? And do you have an approach to coming up with a solution, or a potential solution? Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I agree with Mr. Kleowski that this… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): An issue of balancing growth with the small-town feel that people want. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): But we're gonna be constrained because there just isn't much left to develop. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): And… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): you know, we have the Eastern Gateway, but what… that's false, the Eastern Gateway's crossing a railroad track, and it's just…
Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): the DPW, that… I don't think that's the answer that everyone hopes it's going to be. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I think we have to decide… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): We're gonna have to decide what's important to us, and what nice-to-haves do we want, because not everyone's gonna pay for them, and we're lucky we got… I love pickleball, but I love the idea of recal. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): There's a lot of people that just said those aren't as essential as some of our services. We got those. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Are we gonna take on another big… Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): recreational, the public. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Works Project, or do we kind of just say, let's Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): keep trying to pay for what we have. I think we have to decide what… what we want, because we're comp… what are we comparing ourselves to with services?
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): and balancing. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): a small-town feel, or if you want these other things to pay for them, so I… Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): I just don't see the growth potential unless we really want to change what we are as a town. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): So, and I think that faces a lot of towns, not just us. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): But we're… we're not North Reddick. We don't have. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): a lot. We're small, we're very built up. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): So I think that's the challenge. I think that we're just going to keep facing these overrides. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): Paying more and more for the. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Same amount of stuff.
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): So we just gotta keep what we have. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): desirable. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you for coming. I'm gonna put your hat of the card, your name in the hat, for God's sakes. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): last one, babe. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I know you have. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): And not the last one that's one on the 24th. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Tonight, yes. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): But thank you for coming in. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): to quote. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): One quick question, you barely answered one of them, but, do you have any known conflicts? Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): other place. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): No, the only thing is my company might sell parts to RML.
Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Schneider Electric. I have no direct. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): direct involvement. I don't even… my side of the business doesn't. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): deal with that, and I prophet. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): but nothing. If anything came up with a vote, say FinCom needed to go into its reserves so that RMLD could buy some switches from Schneider Electric. I mean, I recused from that. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's about the only thing I should think of. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Oh, God. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): That would also be super-duper weird. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Because I don't think RMLD has ever come to fit ball for our reserves. They're the… we'd be going in. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): for money.
Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Hi, Mo, any last questions, anybody? Any comments by any… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Well, thank you, and I hate for all the time you're putting in for us. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): No, I know, it's hard to know it's the last term. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): I didn't realize StuCom actually had that. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Yeah, I didn't realize that. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's not that many members that have gone all the way to. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): refuge from Ed Ross is gonna be. I had Paula Perry in the past, yeah. Not sure if Mark Ducksner got to. Speaker 3 (Town Hall Conference Room): Marked at all three. Yep. Yeah. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Get on for a year and work a long time.
Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): That's right, yeah. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Another weird, yeah. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): I got forgot. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Let's sleep. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Thank you, Mary, I appreciate it. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): up our interviews. One of the. Speaker 9 (Town Hall Conference Room): But it's… Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): It's… applying trauma, echo Motion. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Motion to approve minutes from the June 12, 2025, meeting. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): It sucks a second. Any comments on that? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Right, we don't have to include roll call, because we're all here, so all in favor of. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): accepting the administration. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): And the post, the.
Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): what you care? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Allied. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): I need a motion to adjourn. You know. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): 8, of course. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Salute. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Go ahead. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): In favor of penetrating. Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): Raise your hand. Opposed. This meeting stands adjourned until… Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Thank you. Speaker 11 (Town Hall Conference Room): Oh, yes. Speaker 13 (Town Hall Conference Room): related to, the IP address. Speaker 4 (Town Hall Conference Room): Correct. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): Can't talk to you? Speaker 5 (Town Hall Conference Room): anybody. Speaker 6 (Town Hall Conference Room): You know, it's related.