Okay. So, we'd like to call the meeting of the finance committee to order at 6:13 p.m. Sorry. Um, if I could roll attendance, please. Mary Jane Church here. Walker here. Grant here. Carol is here. Carol
House is here. Here. We have We are ready to go. This meeting is being recorded. It will be played back on channel 9 as well as posted onto the YouTube channel. At this point, is anybody else
recording this meeting? No one is recording the meeting. additions or deletions. Um I want in our work session I would like to get one more line. We did get a
correspondence late Friday on Friday from the post from the posting after we had posted and within the 24 hours of the meeting as it was a holiday and that's regarding the request
for was that was that Dave What was that trans that that is being um the snow and ice? It's snow and ice. All right. Yeah. Y can you just minimize
that? Y between a couple of them here. Okay. So let's um first first one we'll go to we'll just wanted to hit that discussion before we get to on the bus and
recap and then we did have the warrant article I put it on here. Do we want to change the order that we're addressing? Do we want to look at the accounts first? Answer some questions here. No, I think we're okay with the order you got.
Okay, that being said, we'll move on to work session and take a look at the reserve fund transfer. Um, it's not in any of the papers. It just it came out very late um afternoon. Oh, it just came out this
afternoon. Oh, it's a surprise. Yeah. Yeah, it kind of it was mentioned last Friday. I wanted to get clarity on it. So, the board that uh I forwarded it 4:45 this afternoon. So, Oh, okay. I
didn't see it. Yeah. So it's kind of So the first thing we'll hit here is the question um for the committee in to address is
approximately $16,000 snow ice deficit that won't be covered by free cash. So they're looking for a reserve fund transfer from us. From us. Yeah. So that we verify that we had the $50,000, right? It went down to 40. No, no, no.
It's 40. It's 50 now. Yeah. It's 50 now. And that's kind of what this reserve fund is for, right? Well, that's that's the piece. It's kind of like this is the first time everybody's hitting. Most 50% of us are hitting it, right? It's kind of like uh so I wanted to make
sure um so we have the handbook where you can look at the reserve fund. I brought from master law. I did bring up a little bit. It's not a whole lot of money to Yeah.
Right. I've I've seen some things that said if it if you're doing it for something that's normal business, you would take it to town meeting. Um, but I did pull up and I have the link for the general law and I didn't think see anything in here that
specifically says that it it needs to go to to town meeting and we've never done them in the past. But as we read it, it's something that is unknown at the time of the um when we do the budget and pass the budget last May and then later in
October and August when we ran it. Um, so this is unexpected. We've used more. So we we've move used more monies than we have um from free cash right now because we had a couple of free cash
articles at the last town meeting that moved 281,000 out of free cash, right? So that would normally be available and it's unavailable at this point. Right. Oh, so it would usually come from free cash. Okay. And we're taking a lot of it
from free cash. We just don't have enough to cover the full amount. The full amount. Yeah, I would say that's legitimate. Okay. Do we take a motion or we would we would take a motion. Um generally let's see this one from the
beginning. It doesn't sound. Okay. Well, we'll go back. We'll have we can have more discussion. Um but I started um I only had it's um the reserve fund transfer um form that we have would be
would be filled out where it's where it's coming from. So um oh so so that the department head will request it from us requested from us and so but this is the first time that we
haven't we haven't seen it before. So so he didn't get around to asking us yet. Is that the case? He he hasn't submitted the form yet. The the request is in for So how do we know he needs it? Um because it it was in the email from Nelson. Um if we look at the email that
the email that he forwarded to us with the request with the budget the um this file and the recap sheet file had that in there had the request he had it it he kind of outlined or because there was
also a form that had there was also a file in there that was the state of the free cashache and it showed where it all got where it all got sent and and and it showed that Um, with the current state of the snow and ice expenditures,
there's not enough in cash to cover the total snow and ice expenditure, right? Because we only have $18,000, right? Well, no, it's got a negative. It's basically avoided. It's basically all the free cash is used and there's
still 16,000 several hundred that has to be covered for the snow and ice. Snow and ice. Okay. So that 16 and 16 from us. No, that's that's the 16 that they need from us. It's the 291.
Let me see if I Is it this rem is it this remaining balance of 16? Yes. 46 y 16,046. Yeah. Okay. So, and and it does have the number for the snow and ice transfer in
there. It did. Is it? It's u Oh, is that the That's the cash precash sheet. Yeah. So, um what we've got here is the total snow deficit is
37,704. They have free cash of 291658. So, the deficit that we need for um the transfer is the 16,46. So, if we don't have the form yet, then all we really can do tonight is vote to
say if you send us the form, we will approve it. Well, we we can do that. We can we can vote to approve it because we know it's coming. Okay. Um they haven't seen the form. The form isn't posted on the finance page anywhere. It is a form that people usually get around from
someone. Okay. So, I'm thinking this is the time to get it posted onto the finance website so that people can Yeah. get the form, request it, complete it. Oh, yeah. And fill in and and send it to
us. Absolutely. So, um so I and again we can we can make that motion without the form. There's only one signature required which is the finance. If I go to the bottom of the form, the finance committee
uh um chairman is Oh, so we're authorizing you to sign for so so that motion. So we can generally So Sam, did we answer your questions or not? when I
told you you wanted the discussion does not fit the definition the first one he gave us and the one our definition at the top of this page okay but let's get the full full definition it's kind of like to provide for extraordinary and unforeseen
expenditures at a town um that town may in an annual or special town need appropriate or transfer some not exceeding the aggregate of 5% so that that's just setting up the fund and five and 50,000 is way less than 5% of the
time budget. No direct drafts can be taken from the fund which means if we approve it, we have to do a transfer and take it from our our fund and move it into the other account. Did you say 50 or 40? 50 is next year. We're in FY25.
So FY25 we are 50,000. Um and it says but transfers from the fund may be made from time to time voted by the finance or appropriation committee in the town and we are the finance committee if the town having such a committee and other towns by
selecting and the town accountants in the town such official um the town's auditor please shall make transfers accordingly. So those are the people that are going to do transfers. There's
really nothing that if this is unforeseen because there's no no more free cash available. Normally we would have free cash available to make this transfer. Normally we should and this year we should too except for the last
town special town meeting right when it was inappropriately appropriated. Right. Wait, it it was it the the motions on the floor were made based on the balance at that time. Um the balance
on the snow and ice has gone up as additional items have hit that line and that's that's why it's now exceeded it. Well, I'll back everybody here whichever way you all want to go. Okay, I'll make the motion um that we
grant the request of it's the highway department. It will be for highway. Yes. Our department for the unforeseen expenses for snow and ice and to authorize Chairman Hayes to sign the request on our behalf. Did you write
that all down? I did. I'll second it. So, we had a motion and a second. Um, the amount wasn't in there, but it will be the 16,46. I didn't I didn't hear the amount. Oh, I didn't say it. That's okay. Okay.
16,000. I'll add it. The 16,046. Okay. [Music] Okay. If anybody else wants the links, I can follow the links out for men and to authorize chairman.
Oh, what do we authorize? Oh, to sign request to sign the request request in the amount of in the Thank you Mary. Okay. So the motion was made by Mary J.
The second is by and this will be our first one. Some of the request numbers I do remember them don't expect that many but little bit of tracking and making sure that they're numbered and we
Sorry, just saying that back to Okay, thank you. So that helps with it and it gets us to when we get to the special town meeting warrant we'll
see that the amount that they transfer which is that okay so I sent oh that's right so Um we we had the motion in the second. Any further
questions on the reserve fund transfer before we vote? Okay. None. Your questions being a yes vote will authorize us to transfer
the 16,41 from reserve fund and 46. 46. Thank you. Next up, Jin Churchill, yes. David Walker, yes. Dam Grant, yes. Yes. Carol
Hus, yes. Hayes, yes. Unanimous. We will submit that and forward it to to make the transfer. So that that piece will be done and
and any balance at the end of the year does that just go to free cash next year for free cash certification. Correct. Okay. Yeah. Any balance on our on our reserve? Yeah. Can we get it back?
Know what I mean? Because we gave 10 up. We we did give 10 up and as I've been doing some of this investigation into into this request I did read that when you go into a tight budget year generally the reserve fund is increased
during those years because your your anticipation is that with all the cuts you might have more requests for additional transfers over so that's something we hadn't considered but all right then why we up to That's
why we boosted it up to 50 and again maybe this year and we proved at least one year but it doesn't mean that we can't when precache is certified um at a at a special time meeting in
after certification see if if we're using it at a at a high level see if we can put it when it doesn't normally come into use until now um in the next month or two actually yeah in May those those that are heavy use periods.
Yes. And then the municipal transfers. Um that's okay. So then that's what we received on the bus. Yeah. [Music] Thank you. But you have to put them together. This is page one. This is page
two. It's just the opposite. Okay. But they are number one. Thank you. Good girl. So, we're going to do the current version. We know it's the current version. It was provided on Friday and
that that is well, it's the current version of when it was print when it was said. Um, and if if we take that, so maybe maybe we take a quick look at the recap sheet first and then a nice balance. Yeah, I do have
some questions on the recap on definitions of some of the items they mean since I haven't seen, you know, since I haven't gone through the process before. Okay. Um I'm okay just sort
of the first few lines the appropriations this is the total budget for the for the town and so it's coming out to the 20 28 million people want to see it a little
bit larger no I mean I my questions come come Okay. Um, but I I have done the confirmation that these numbers match the on the bus that was provided. So that that's the piece it
the recap sheet is trying to come up and identify all the areas of monies that are going to be transferred during the town meeting in in articles as well as the 15th um it didn't have a date on
[Applause] So, we're making sure that we're looking at the same [Music] Okay. So, um, [Music] first initial, last name.
Yeah. Oh, I was just I just want to make sure that this this line is supposed to match this line. Yeah, he said it did. It doesn't. Oh, oops. Well, it's only off by a couple. Oh, it may be off for by a
buck. Uh, no. True. Yeah. No, a little bit more than then. Am I reading that as 29,000 on that sheet? Is that what line? See, maybe I'm looking at the wrong line. The one that says total amount to be raised. Is that
the wrong line to be looked at? Yeah, I think so. Is that the the line the line at the omnibus? Is it should match the one at the at the the one after the first four items? the first four items on the top
of the spreadsheet on the top of that sheet. Okay. All right. So, Dave, so is that is that the budget total there on bus 10 28761 166? Okay. And that should be
where is that? That should be uh one, two, three. The fourth line. The fourth line down. The fourth line down. Yep. The fourth line down. Says total operating budget. What do you have? Oh, okay. Okay. That's
the one. That's the one. Okay. All right. Then then I was looking at the wrong line. Okay. 27456 37. No, it says total here it says 28761 1 166. Okay. An increase of 4.752.
Yeah. Okay. So, I was looking at the wrong lines. Okay. So, what's what the one the line now that says total amount to be raised is that the Okay. So, that's when you get into these adjustments and those some of those lines are some of the ones I have
questions. Right. So this it it starts with we need the money for the budget. Now the next section is Tom meeting article that are coming in. The first one it has money in this column is the
166,491 for Tc. These are receipts from Comcast. So there is no it's almost it's a transfer T the Comcast will give us that money and we will transfer it and send it to
TAM but again we'll see in the revenues we'll see that same number that same number so it offsets so it it does offset so right now at line 11 we have the total appropriations at 28,927
um other amounts to be raised Yeah. So then here's where So what does the current year overlay mean? What does that mean? Okay, that means for FY206, how much money are we going to put into the assessors for
um for the senior work program for the abatements uh for both real estate and excise tax. So this is money we set aside thinking we might have to pay it back if assessments are off or people
trading cars early and they want excise tax back or the seniors work work off program to to get their pay so that they can get a discount from their real estate tax bill. So this money we put aside is for that and
that's not a standard budget line item. That's that is that is always a standard budget line. You you can see well but it's in this other amounts to be raised rather than being in the omnibus. Correct. Yeah. And so to me that's not a standard budget item then because a standard budget item would be in the omnibus. Right. It it's a standard
operating a standard operating item but not and it's put in here. Okay. Snow and ice. That makes sense. Now what are the cherry sheet offsets and the state assessments? Okay. Um the cherry sheet offset and the state assessments. Those
two lines come from the DLS, the cherry sheet. So when they give us the money and the revenue for the cherry sheets, there are some chargeback items for like the one that comes to mind is the transportation that is um
the L regional transportation authority or whatever whatever whichever one you're part of. So for us it would be there but there's a general they bring it back to the state for that. Okay. And okay because the cherry the cherry sheet is the money we get from sales tax. No
the cherry sheet is the money we get from the state the state. Oh okay. Just our just our share of our share of the state. And then they take this much back. Correct. Y but that's a deal for you. And same thing with state assess is state assessment essentially the same thing.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then and then we know we covered the Hero Act one. Hero Act that and in future years because we haven't passed the Hero Act yet. Um it's a it's in a separate line. I
haven't read all Warren articles yet, but I expect it's in one of the war articles. So we're accounting for it if it passes. If we don't account for this during town meeting, we have to scramble, right, and find a way to come
up with 75,000 more um in the balance budget. So, it's it's in here. If it doesn't pass, that's 755,000. Um but this is the first time next year you'll see that more than likely in the current in the overlay. And so the if it
passes this year, then it would be to the overlay. Yeah. Um Okay. So with with the overlay um we do with uh we we do get some money back um from the state get reimbured this new hero act we don't get reimbured any any more than we
currently do. Okay. Yeah. Point of clarification Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Given that this is a new expense and the select board has created an override. Shouldn't this be one of the
items that they're listing in the over because it's new. It was not in our operating budget. Um well again I I don't it won't appear in the operating budget anyway. It it really only it appears here with the
overlay. You don't see the overlay in as line the the budget is expensive line line items. Understood. But it's funds to be raised. it is funds to be raised. Um we we can make that as a statement up
front on recommendations that if we don't pass the act could reduce the ask on on the override. I think that because there's not a budget anymore, people cannot see our revenue coming in your right
here. And so now you don't see the revenue coming in, but now we have something that has to be not transparent to and that's what you're doing, but it's not transparent to the voters. And we can, you know, people just need to
know, right? We did discuss that a little bit before the meeting kicked off. Um, somebody was asking the question, do we have the recap sheet in the wallet in the warrant? And it's not only the on bus is in there. So that we do need to have a little bit more
visibility into into these other items that that are in there. Um, and also I haven't had the time to look to see which warrant article is, but if we highlighted it that said this is this is required
warrant a specific it's a program but people do need to know what is it right what is the hero act? Yeah. So it's a it's a program that is statewide and most of it is reimbured and funded. So excise taxes if someone
is disabled they get some back tax and property tax and then there's a sort of sliding scale and said most of it is reimbured by the state but this new legislation that in
August so again I say this to everyone publicly just left the opportunity from August two special town meetings to introduce this act and get the community um to vote on it before
before it shouldn't be in an override before it's voted on um but this second is not reimbured by the state so this doubling of it or increasing of the property tax is not
for specialized veterans I think veterans veteran. Yeah, I know heard nothing about it until a few meetings ago. Um some definitely no if if you know any veteran
of airs, you know, ability. Yeah, exactly. All of the reason I asked is it for a specific type of person or type of veteran is very related to everything I've ever read whether it's social
security things in the news at least is always related to the first thing she said disabled and or other which is certainly important but does it go to anybody who happens to get through the service and back out you know well and ready to go. Yes. qualifying seniors,
surviving spouses in the fines. So, but there's a a whole packet in the um veteran help. Thank you for pointing me in that direction. I don't see it in here. Is it article
19? I mean, is it 18 or 19? because yeah, there's nothing in here that that mentions Hero, the Hero Act with with an amount. Don, this Don, this is Cindy King. Can I can I speak to this? I'm pretty much involved with the Hero Act stuff.
Um, the Hero Act, there's two articles. One is to increase the cost of living for the exemptions that we whether or not we accept the second article or not. We already give veterans exemptions for uh significantly disabled veterans from
a variety of percentages. Uh veterans disabilities are different than social security disabilities, but um those veterans who are um ill or injured because of their um service, they um the Veterans Administration determines that
they're disabled. Massachusetts has had a a veterans exemption on on property taxes for many decades and um it hasn't been increased in more than 20 years. Um the the so one of the articles the the
cost of living increase is to provide an annual automatic based on the CPI um like everything else um to allow the state and this will that the first one will be is which article is that there I don't know the numbers I don't have
you're the only ones that I've known that even has these articles but there's two articles there's two Hero Act articles the first one is simply a cost of living adjustment and hopefully that should pass without any questions. But um that and that's reimbursed because that's based whether or not the second
article passes or not is is not even relevant. The because the first one will be reimbursed based on because this is it's just a cost of living thing. But the um because we haven't had they haven't had an increase in 20 years on that
particular on any of the exemptions. And even though property taxes have, as you all know, our property taxes have gone up ex uh exponentially, but the veterans exemptions for disabled veterans. Um many of whom can't really do anything
about their their income. Um and the second one is a change these all had to be voted on at annual town meeting. This is happening statewide. This is not some secret squirrel thing that the towns and board selectman did to sneak this in.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with an override. You cannot put this in as part of an override and it's not. Um this is um the hero act was finally put through sometime last year. Um the department of revenue submitted um the
the letters to the towns and all the towns. This was back in December informing all the about in the assessor's office primarily uh regarding how these are calculated. Uh if you care, I did a YouTube video not that
long ago about this um because of my concerns of the misunderstandings that I'm hearing now um about who exactly this applies to and applies to uh the many of the Oh, right in there. Oh, that's nice. um many of the disabled veterans who are already receiving
exemptions at varying levels. Um some people the the lowest is uh 10 the if it if you're at 10% I I don't have it in front of me but the lowest reim the lowest tax exemption right now for
veterans at certain level is 400 on for their from their taxes and the the highest oh gosh I think it's 1,500 it could be 1250 I don't know um some veterans get 100% of their taxes I mean
or some We only have like one person I think in town and I believe that might even be a spouse of a dis of a surviving spouse of a disabled veteran. That is a 100 that is those are those are not impacted by this second one. Those there's no increase if you're already
getting a tax exemption. But um those that are can get up to 1,500 there's a a percentage a dollar amount that is reimbursed uh to the town on all of these. uh it's not 100% reimbursement. I think it's around 85% on on the exemptions that we
get. Now when this this increase that goes up, what they're asking is 100% um and authorized is to to double what the exemptions are. Like the the $400 veteran disabled veteran would get an
$800 exemption. the town would still get reimbursed for the 85% of the $4400, but they wouldn't get reimbured for the extra 400. Um, I mean, that's unfortunate that the state is doing it this way, but that's how they're they're
asking the towns um to um well, this is authorized in the law for the towns. And I really hate to see Towns and be one of the towns that veterans aren't going to get the increase, but the town next door will get the increase. So, we're kind of telling veterans, we don't want you
here. But the um but this is way overdue. The this increase, the last time this was increased was somewhere around 20 years ago. I thought it had been longer than that, but I checked back through my tax exemption, my tax bills that go back 40
years. And um but even though tax exemption or tax rates have gone up significantly, the veterans who are receiving this um I wish I had it handy. I could I'm sending it to Don right now.
Cindy so he can send it. I'm I'm going to send the exemption sheet to Don so he can send it. Who is that? Who's speaking? Yeah, I'm gonna send it to Don Hayes so he can send it to his committee. Thank you. I I really don't
know what you mean, but um but there's different um there's different exemptions. Um I did a video, if you were to go back through my videos, you could find it um that goes over the different percentages. You can easily find it on on the on the uh do website.
And um but it doesn't it just increases it it kind of helps the the veterans who have been getting exemptions but it has not kept ke kept up with the amount of taxes that many of these veterans um have been getting and it really helps
them and it's not um and it's not some sneak attack by the select board. There's no I mean they're not even they're probably just as lack of knowledge as you are. Um they I think we we get it. Get it. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. What would happen if Yeah. Um I just had a question. So I I support the Hero Act, but I obviously don't know what town meeting will end up doing, right? But so I think clarifying
that it is included in the override that 75,000 increase to get to that 625 pass is important. And my question would be like if town meeting didn't pass it and the override was to pass before that because town meeting has to adopt the same
excuse what happens to that $75,000. Is it going to be spent? It is not it it is not part of the override. It cannot be part of an override. It would be part of uh entitlements and exemptions. It would
be part of the regular um tax levy and not uh part of an override. Override passing or failing will have no impact or vice versa on this article. But Cindy, it's in the override budget. Right. Just to clarify, Cindy, what I was saying about the select is they had
two special town meetings to bring this before the voters. Wasn't saying it was a sneak attack. It's just they've had two special town meetings since this pass on the city level to bring this forward. If but again if we had done it in
FY25 and it's not taking impact until FY26 it would still be in the budget for the first time. Correct. But people would have known about it. Yeah, we haven't adopted it yet. Yeah, but transparency is not big. What would happen to it if the override
passed and how didn't adopt? it would be part of the general general fund. If we don't adopt it, there'll be 75,000 that we can um use. If another kind of a semantic thing because if the if the override
if this were to pass and the override fails, the 625 cuts would have to come out of the omnibus budget, not that line item. And now, okay, and if it does, and that's what I think that's what Cindy means by saying it's not part of the override and that this is a separate
line item that does not get impact if the if the override fails, but this one passes, this one is in there and the the cuts would have to come out of the omnibus. Fair. Okay. So if the override passes
and town meeting does not adopt the new provisions of the hero act and that 75,000 was included in the calculation of the override can we then manages that where does it go and if we say at that point it goes into the bing reserve. Yeah I don't know what what happened
then no it cannot be part of anything to do with an override the the the heroes act is completely separate. it. What she's asking, Cindy, I know what she's asking and and no, it it's it's it's past fail. They're not including the
75,000 in the overwrite amount. If they are, then they're doing some they're doing something illegal, right? It's kind of like when when we get to the bottom here, Cindy, you'll see that these numbers that we're talking about here and trying to raise includes that
75,000 in it would be included in the overall numbers. So they put it in the budget. Yes. Right. So and it shouldn't be in the budget. Well, it's not in the omnibus budget. It's in a different But like you said, it's semantics. What's the But if it's
included in the override and it's not supposed to be included in the override, then the override should be $75,000 less. Exactly. Right. But then then then how do you come up with this 75,000 to increase your property taxes
to pay for it if if it's not part of the 625 is if it's not included in there the 625 has to yeah it's kind of like so we're doing all this bad so how can we even drive it see we should be passing a budget first
I think so I really believe that I think we should just talk let's concentrate on how we solve that problem because going over these numbers 500 times every single month, three times a month, we we have the ability to not to make a recommendation not to approve the HIP
codes to warrant our Okay, but then what happens? But we don't have a budget. The budget needs to be passed. And then once the budget's passed, then we know what we have to work with. Right now, we have no budget. We're guessing all the time and
it changes every time. Me. Yeah. Well, the budget hasn't changed for a couple of days and what they what they presented on the 16th as far to the best of my knowledge. U what I had looked at there was no
changes from the 16th to the 18th when we got that. That would be 48 hour period. Okay. Okay. I guess I guess you're right. Got a point. When we started at the top of this, that was the bud. That's the on the bus budget. That's what the town budget is. The rest
of this is what the other amounts that revenues we're getting and the expenses that we see for articles that are on the town warrant on the annual town meeting warrant. If those pass, we have to have the money in the budget to pay for them.
And that's why they're listed here. I still think that having the budget first Well, but you can't have the budget first until you until you appropriate the appropriate amount, and you're not allowed to appropriate more than two and a half% more for a year. But they could
have done the budget and then town meeting on a contingency and then have the over so that we knew it was so they they could Yes. But that would require a second election and another cost for an election. They want to do it for a
select board anyway. They want to have an election after any town meeting to elect the two additional members of the selection that we're going to get back. I don't want I don't want to go sideways on you. Okay. It's kind of like this. So, let me ask
this question which goes back to the recap. So, this is under other amounts to be raised. Mhm. And then it says total total other amounts be raised is $5.99 941 if I can read that small
print. So what does that actually mean? Is that okay? Is that part of the 625 override or is this additional money amounts to be raised? Um it's it's the it's part of
that other amounts to be raised which is which includes the hero act. Okay. This is um but when you get down to other amounts to be raised right right there 5.99. So that's total other amounts to
be raised. What is that figure like? What does that really mean? Is that additional funds that have to be raised. Yeah, that's additional money over the omnibus budget. Over the omnibus budget. So in addition to the omnibus budget,
we're trying to re raise these these funds. So is this are these are things that are included in the 625 override? Well, that the yeah the the number that came up with the 625 override is based on that line item number 27. This this
is a this is a start of it. Okay. Because there'll be offsets. When you look at the stone ice deficit, we it says your cursor's in the changing. Okay. Okay. That's that's what I was just trying to understand. Right. So, we
have to raise 287, but you'll see in the funds we're going to transfer from cash the amount to cover this. Okay. So, so you need to raise 593 941 625. No. Okay. No. Okay. No. Okay. So we need in
addition to what we started with on the top which is the annual the the on the bus budget. So we start with 28,761. Okay. Then for town meeting articles we added
166,491 to it. So the total appropriations with the TCAM payment is the 28,927. Then we have other amounts. So we have the overlay and the snow and ice. Those are the amounts that that 563
brings the total that we have to raise to 29,521,598. So that's the total we have to raise to pay the to pay the bills. Now we get into the revenue section. Where's the money going to come from for this?
And since 291, it's now going to be the 291 that's in the war article. Yeah. So I may have So we should have another updated one. So the 287 is going to be 291. 291. What was the number,
Carol? You had the Oh. Um, for which number? The one that I said ice 291. Oh, the snow and ice is the 616. It's up here. The 291. Oh, the 291600 or 291658.
Okay. Oh, no. Snow and ice is 291658. Okay. So, that increases that. So, this keeps going up every time we meet. Yeah. Well, it keeps snowing. So, yeah, you can't do much with the Didn't
we get didn't we get the new police budget? No, that that that I can explain. I I learned something from that. Right. That was in your email, too. Yeah, that was in the It was Maybe I didn't read the whole email. It's just printing stuff. Yeah, it's too much. I
mean, it is. It's just way too much. I mean, is this a plan to to make everybody completely It It is not. It's This is total negligence. Unfortunately, some some of how it works. When we saw the original and and let's let's finish.
Let's let's go through this. So now we we got the cherry sheet total number that's coming in. Um the enterprise indirect cost. These are the transfers that come from the water department to the town or what the town provides for
the water department. Um and this is higher than our last meeting when uh news groups discussing it. They've finalized on these and Just y Mr. point where it appears different in the
warrant. It it may it kind of again the warrant article is based on a point in time. the motion that they make on the floor will have that's what I but I don't know
we're closer to 600 I don't know are we are we actually at the true number of 6.5 or did I keep adding things no it's gone up gone up gone up
isn't the what's what's the Do we really believe the 625 override is sufficient to cover the expense the when we get to the bottom line and
it's act when it says 6 when it said 625 before I made just made that change um there are some things that happened in on the bus budget that made made it 625 and if you're
running exactly if your override is exactly what you need. Yeah. I'm not you'd like to have a at least a couple of thousand. Yeah. Above. So, you're run you're running a tight budget. It's kind of like Yeah. But I don't believe the
625 number. Okay. That and that's where the omnibus comes back. Well, the other problem you face is so like the cherry the cherry sheet receipts. That's an estimate, right? That is the best estimate. Um and they took it from the first column, not the second and third.
The second and third columns for the cherry sheet. Um the first one is I think is the governor's budget and then you have the house budget and the senate budget and then they vote the final. Oh they being the selective they being the state the state tells us. So this number won't change. No this number might
change depends on what the votes are. This number is like based on the historic it will change. Yeah because the state will not have themselves together either. Right. Right. Yeah. You think we're screwed up. So this the state is going to bring it to conference and at the end of the
conference they will have the final number when they pass the final budget for the state. Until then like the schools we have a number that's a preliminary number that they allow us to use. So if if this number happen to go down we would need more than the 625.
And what does the state do this? Does this does the number ever go up? Yes. Okay. So if the number went up we would need less than the 625. Correct. But but we won't know that until after we vote on the 625. Right. Exactly. Because we we vote on our budget in May. Yeah. They
might finalize a budget in July, right? Or August, right? It's kind of like So it's like the federal the budget season is the bud is is how you have to put it together. And the schools the schools run the same situation. They don't know
their final numbers until until Yep. after. Y and the and that's also true on the estimated local receipts line, right? You know, I mean, we we're guessing 2 million. We're we're guessing
2 million based on the FY25 figure says it cost about 200 the 278,000. Yes. So the local estimated receipts that's is that the sales and the excise
taxes? Yes. And and yeah. Yeah. Um um when you say sales tax, you're talking the revenue from restaurant. Well, I mean we get a I mean I imagine that if I go into a store and buy something, the town gets a portion of the of the sales tax that I paid to
them. That's a state sales tax and that's So that's part of your cherry sheet number. That's part of the cherry sheet. That's part of your revenue stream. Okay. Um along along with income tax in the end they that's the money they use to give back to us. So okay. So
what's so what goes into the estimated receipts then? Um that is going to be as you said the excise tax. Um it will be the restaurant. It will be the money from um the rest of the things the dog licenses. Um
and and you're saying there's a portion of the restaurant taxes involved. a portion of restaurant. So, we need to approve more liquor licenses to get some more restaurants. Yeah. We we don't do against Is that the purple bags the 540
a month P A? Yeah, that's a purple bag. I was just handed if you want to see the breakdown where local receipts are local. Okay. So, do we know why our it went down by 8%.
Because if you read the note, the FY25 was inflated by 278,632 with opera funds. Oh, okay. So, um in December they had when the opera funds got shuffled. Oh, yeah. I remember that. Okay. Um that that was a piece of
these opera funds go away because they're really annoying. um opera funds can 27 it's December 31st so halfway through 27 December 31st of 2026 is 2026 but that's
your first half of FY27 right so okay so yeah yeah if you remember we cross calendar years yeah cross the calendar and then it's not available it goes away we didn't spend it it goes that yeah and the story but thank God. Okay. Right. So
these are the receipt these are so that five million is what we kind of expect as our this is what we expect from the revenue the the 480 which we didn't talk is that pays you throw down. Yep. So we've kind of beat that one to death.
Yeah. Please let's not talk about that. Right. And then other things are going to happen as we look at the at the Walmart articles, the 700,000 transfer from the ambulance. No, but are we getting that this year? Yes, we I thought that was going to go for the um
fire truck. No, no, he said he was going to transfer the 700,000. It's going going back from remember he got up at the info meeting and he if I achieve I listen to him. So,
so the 700 is is in the Warren article and that's the number that they've been doing the last couple of years. Um 701 800 700 now. Okay. So, now that's for 2026. Yeah. Didn't he say that there was
going to be problems because of the closing of the hospital and we were going to need more services? This this the receipts are not going down. Okay. This this is how much they get for each from the ambulance funds.
What about getting the 250? The 250 is has been my understanding was that it went into a a fund that is specifically for the ambulance services and and outfitting them. Um the majority of it went from
Okay. So it's 700,000 on that. So, it's down a little bit from 2025, but we were told that our ambulances were working to help other towns. Mutual aid. Mutual aid. Oh, so we're not getting extra
money. We we're getting a transfer money. I believe there is some transfer money when you when you transfer the patient from their ambulance to our Gary said that was the meeting that the 250 is some sort of uh pay you to shut up
money and um he that we can only use it for certain specific ambulance. No, no, no. It it that's that's the 250,000 for the shutting of Yeah. the hospital of the hospital. This this is the transfer of money from from right but that is
only not avail that's only available certain specific devices within the fire department itself. So I guess my question is can that 700 be higher can we get more than that if if we do more runs and there is more and
the answer would it potent potentially but the other thing is it could be used for ambulances. It can it can be used to support us by allowing us to put that money into the general fund and using it only in the fire EMS area. That's that's what
the limitation is. So it comes in to the general fund and then immediately takes care of so they get the receipts they come in and it it helps support their um the pay access again is
the money the money we get from Comcast is five 5% of the podcast revenues comes to us. Right now it's estimated at 166. We saw this exact number up on the article 10. Uh so that that's a wash. So really what we're doing is is doing the
whole balancing of the the books. It's kind of like we're going to pay money out to TAMP, but this is where it comes from uh from what's title five is that what title five is your the septic inspections. Mhm. Um and so when when we
do the the title five and and get the approvals and they get those um that money I believe comes from board of health if it's not is that an estimate? It it has to be. You you don't know how many title five. So that could go down.
It's potential to go down. It could go up if you build more houses expand. It's just kind of like if you know something. No, I I don't get that. But also by selling
right fails. Yeah. You have to put in for everything with the septic. It's kind of like whether it's a new one, whether one fails or or So that's based on house starts. Put a little bit of house starts a little transfer little little failure of septic system. Yeah.
Um the transfer from the reading room reading room. Yeah. So the West Town reading room. Yeah. What goes on there? They collect money when people rent it and so they're transferring it back in into um into general funds. So more often.
Yeah. I didn't realize that. I wonder what they charge. Um it's I think it's online. Yeah, I'm sure. Like everything else, there's a lot of things on. Then we have the transfer from other funds. This is the page throw
grant. Oh, wait. So 62,000 coming in. And then from free cash, we're bringing the 200,000. So wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. Go back up. So it says transfer from wreck revolving. Yeah. Mhm. It's none. Okay. It's been
reduced to none. It had been used to offset the assistant director and the assistant director uh position is not in the FY26 budget. So they're going to use and and again that was the assistant
director would were in the summer programs and so that's why the money was transferred out and because she was already they were already getting a check from the town it would increase and they'd pay it out of the town budget. So they moved money over. Now the position is going to be strictly um
like any other person we hire and paid from the revolving fund directly. Okay. So we won't be getting any funds from them. This year this year. Yeah. We are paying for the director. We still Yeah, we still pay. That's the only one we're
paying for. The rest of it comes out of the revolving fund. Correct. Yeah. Then the 200 free cash from the special town meeting. Um overlay surplus. If if you have that number and
you see a number here, the overlay surplus is how much of the current year overlay we didn't use. That's that's what this number is. That number will only get populated when fiscal 25 finishes.
the um assessor might give us an estimated number um now and if there's nothing here that I see like there's there's nothing okay nothing available to come back and nothing available in stabilization well okay last year we
used 136,000 of stabilization when we in August when we were trying to balance the budget with the school increase and and the pay as program just started and
so stabilization went there. There is money in the stabilization fund. Um it is getting lower as a percentage of the town budget. So it's kind of so that's something that we haven't talked about as a town of what is our target, what is
our goal to try to stay there. Stabilization helps you with if if there's a big bill that comes in. number one, but number two, it helps you with your bond rating. So, if you have a healthy balance in there, you can keep your bond rating lower um when you borrow money. Do we know how much is
left in there? It's about 1.1 million plus or minus a little bit. And how much do we need to have in there to be to keep the bond rating? I'd like to see it higher than 8% probably closer to 10 to the 8% of what?
10% of the total town budget 2.9 million. So we're 2 million. Let's let's go town operating versus let's take the school. How long is the town going to be able Oh, town operating basically. Yeah. Take the schools out.
So Okay. So well actually then we're pretty close. Then we're actually fairly close. Okay. Yeah. I think we're right now around 8% like that. we were up at the 10% and because we used to
right so one of the ways even though nobody's proposed this one of the ways you could reduce the override is to tap from stabilization but of course that becomes a problem if we keep doing that eventually stabilization disappears we shouldn't keep doing that no and and this year we're not planning well maybe
we could and then but we next year we should be looking at how to increase it's like everything else you you should be looking at stable you know, your savings. Yeah, I started typing it because I have to make what what we're doing now right now
is we're reacting. We're not proacting. We're not We're on the brink all the time. And that and that's not sustainable. No. Oh, sorry. Somebody has something to say. Just a
few chairman. Um, so the the first grant for the 250 for the closing of the hospital um direct for the ambulance and I know some's going to out output the the new ambulance as they come in and such but there was another supplemental with $10
million for operations for the impact of the hospital closing 10 million to reimburse local and regional EMS cost to provide services so that was different than the first 250 that we got
to outfit But have we gotten any updates? I know I had asked Nelson if he didn't know that that money had been awarded. That was about it was the second Friday of the month that I asked Nelson about that. Does he on that at all? This is second money. You're talking about this is new. This
is new. The first one was the ambulance specific equipment which I'm not sure um I wasn't at the 16th so I don't know if any of that has been allocated for like the medical supplies or things like that. it it's down I think it was around
20 25 to 35 I think was less. Yeah. So whatever you know there's specific grounds. Um but this one here is specifically to provide services and my understanding it's more flexible. So it would be really good if we knew the
status of that. Um and like I said I asked the town administrator if he didn't know um the call and had a chance to catch up with him but that would be a really good question. The other question that I had is um given that we uh still
have ARPA funding that no one sees on the OM or recap except for the 19 that's been moved over. Yeah. Um but I know you all had discussed that but there's also um through the the foyer request that they did there's been 54,000 out of the
tax levy to pay for the AR funded positions. Um, are you talking specifically in the border selectment area or the other in the border selectment area? Um, I I made sure that it did not
violate any privacy concerns. I was denied my first request, but I gave them the um the Supreme Court decision and um challenged it to the state and the state sided with me and I got the figure. is
$54,000 that we have spent out of the levy. And so how much is that position being supported with the levy for this year's budget? And how do we get that figure? Because the voter should know where that is in the budget because we have not voted on that
position. Did it say it was salaries or benefits? It's the benefits. Okay. And what benefit numbers are not protected by HIPPO or anything else? Oh, are they not? They are not. No, but as long as you don't have names.
Oh, okay. Well, it's not even not. So, the the amount for the benefits are actually because they're part of the tax levy and we are not um the provider and it is not a bill for services. It's a
bill for the insurance itself. just like the pension cost per person. Yeah, we don't we don't have a breakdown by employee on on the benefits. That's that's why I know the PBA is is was zero for those employees. That's why I went
to the benefits. Um so that's not very transparent because if employees are still working but the but the line item is zero. Well, how are they getting paid? Are they they're getting paid for
oper transfer. So they're taking the the salary is being paid not out of the salary line in the on the bus budget but by the opera funds and are they moving it till the next year? Are they moving it to the salary line? What that's not transparent?
No, but that's that's unfortunately um the account we tried to make it transparent by putting the absolute amount in there and putting an opera line on the bottom saying these were the opera funds paying. That would be good. It it would be good. But when you do that in your on the bus budget, it's not
recurring revenue. So the accountant told us we had to take it out because it's not recurring funds. It's not revenue. And did you say that you had to take the AR funds out of the omnibus? Yes. That's why the the lines are sitting at zero. But the act the but they're
actually in the omnibus they right right now the omnibus for next year both positions are sitting at zero. Um but there's $19,000. There is it's not in the omnibus. It's a
note that says 19,000 paying for the assistant town court. So, it's it's reduced the 47 to 27 and it's it's in the note column. It says 19,000. It's not fun. Okay. And you
might recall um one of the board members saying that that was absolutely prohibited, but I did talk to our consultant and national cities and they said that it was so clearly now they've taken that um to heart and actually used it for a new position which is all wow.
And so here we are at this juncture when we have a position that has not been voted on as part of the tax levy by the town's people being paid for in an off budget that now if we have an override and school money comes in next year we're going to have this additional
money. So we're just going to slide that one over and I believe that this voted to recommend to eliminate that position so that we have that money accessible. We have recommended to the board of selection. We passed our recommendations
to the board of selection. What are they doing? Not to the town clerk's office. For the for the funed position that doesn't show the we'll get we'll get into the omnibus. So let's let's hold off on
that. All right. All right. Let's move along. Right. Yep. Exactly. So the other thing is we talked about the on the bus budget increasing in the police. You'll see this line says school resource
officer. So is that the new person that we just hired or we're going to hire? No. No. The school resource officer has been in there. The schools transfer money to the town and we have been paying the resource officer um from this
is another one of those accounting things where this is an accounting thing. The expense comes in was added to the police line. This line got added to basically offset that expense. What about the 61,000 from last 71, wasn't it? Okay. So, that's that's where this
money is. So, the school resource officer was not in the police budget when we have been looking at it all the way through. Now, the school resource officer is there. If we go back to the chief's original, that 80 equals to 61.
No. Oh, there were it was about 80. There was an 80 ad and then there was some subtractions as other things went down. So, the total came out to to 61 to 61. Okay. But but the increase in the bump in the police salaries is based on the school resource officer and that's
this and that's this is offsetting that this is offsetting that increase on the police. Is that one officer? It's one officer. Yeah. School resource. And so we pay for out of the town. It's not part of the school budget. It is not part of the Well, this 80,000 is part of the school budget. It's not trans. It is
part of the school budget, but think of it like, but you've got to do you've got to do the do it this way to to the ins and the outs on your where's the money come from? The money comes from the school and it it's really like the water department
transferring some money to us for something we do. They don't want to hire a police officer and train a police officer, keep them. So because the schools in towns towns and PD provides a school resource officer, right? Um and when we go back and if we look at the
initial budgets, you'll see on the school resource officer, there's no money. It just says SRO in in those lines. And we asked the question, what's SRO? And it was school resource officer. Now this is now they added that number
in and then they added the payment from the school into to pay for it. Okay. All right. So So it's a net effect of zero. Yeah. But you got to do you got to put the number. All right. [Music]
We have a question. Wait till they over 85. The police on the bus matter. Okay. No, it was and that may be part of it
that the cost of the school resource office on the page was higher than what the school was reimbursing us for. So we can check with the chief. Okay. Okay. All right. So with the total revenue it and again I guess I need to ask the
question because I can't tell you what total other available funds is when you have it to the other. So we have the two um total other available funds. We don't know what it is. Um no I think that's the total of
all this all those numbers. Well, the the total revenue is here, but um 1,5 Yeah. Thank you. So, it increase 16%. Well, no, that just that that section did that that section did total
year-over-year because we've now added the $80,000 into it from last year. Oh, that wasn't there. And the 62,000 from the pages, sorry. So, we've increased the revenue with a couple couple of items, but it's really fake, right? Well, it's fake. It's not
fake. It's just it's real money for this year. Accounting. All right. Yeah. So, subtract subtracting that from the total bill, it comes to that the levy we have to raise $22,92,54. Okay.
So now you get into the tax calculations. Okay. Um so down here is the le allowed from the prior year. You'll see that this 20,303 u the second line, the two and a half
increase is just the formula to increase it by two and a half. New growth is provided as an estimate from the assessor. again new more building if if more people build bigger houses and it's considerably lower than last year. Um
but equal to the year before the the 24 it's very low it it's yeah it's variable based you know it's like how many people are doing additions now there's less additions now than a couple years ago
with all those pieces. So that's the kind of stuff we have to look at. That's the kind of stuff but you can't because it's you don't know that number's coming from an estimate. There's no way to there's no way to fix that number fixed numbers you can't
know that you just estimate yeah because I think you're right. I think there is a way. I mean you can look at the factors that created the 131 whatever the number is as it decreased from 200 which is huge
right and then it increased you can look at those factors and figure that out. Well, I mean you can certainly do averages of it, but No, I don't mean by numbers. I mean by what's happening in the world in a town is what's happening in the town and when you go back to 2023
that was 2022 a lot of people were doing additions and things for during proper times and there were and was there was there a new division put in subdivision little one. Yeah. Right. If there's a little subdivision put in, then you can anticipate, okay, that's going to be if
if permits have that's going to be new money, right? So, if if nobody's pulled permits, oh, I see in the last couple months, then that's not going to then you know you're going to be less. If if the number of permits has gone down, then you know you're going to come in less. Yeah. And you can estimate that.
That's so you're only estimating it because that's all you can do. to to your best point and you don't want to overestimate it because if you show them how they should know right now what building permits were pulled and which ones are coming online for next year. Well, they'll know they'll know some of them, but they're not going to know all
of them because if I pull a permit in in September, if someone comes in and says, "Oh, I'm going to build five houses." And they start in September, you not you don't know that those permits aren't pulled now. Those are pulled in September. And if they finish, you know, if they finish in six months, which they
won't because they never finished that fast, but I mean, if they finish before the end of the fiscal year, then, you know, that that comes online. That comes online and available to So, I mean, there's definitely planning that, right? Planning. I mean, that and that's probably what they have. That's where
they got that number from is this is based on what they've received so far. This is what they come to. Our budget book is amazing. I don't know why they don't have it anymore. Um there's actually formulas for this. Yeah, there there's formulas for this. Um calling center gave us this information. You
just had to plug plug it in. Um it kind of like and we haven't plugged it in. We haven't had the financial staff to uh to do it. Um it don't. Yes, we do. Well, we have the HR people. We have We have all kind It's kind of like So it's going
from the budget for for the prior year. Um we we had the calling center for UMass. um come out and do an evaluation of us. They gave us a lot. This would be the fiveyear back um not the fiveyear look
forward but they give you the the history and if you plug in your numbers year over year you can you can keep keep tracking it. But that went away when the stability in the administrator
office. Um, oh um the last um the last line debt excludable from prop 2 and a half that is your two school um exemptions. Um another so that gets added into the two 20
million 941 correct because it's excluded from the two and a half. There's your number 625. Okay. Yeah, that's and that's That's exactly it. It a 625 override would take this and put it to zero.
Okay. And you it would be considered a balanced budget at that point with with no leeway for anything. No leeway for what happened to the Oh, but that's for this year. Never mind. The $19,000 missing invoice, but that's
for 2025. That's for FY25. And that and again I don't um what does that do to the 25 budget? That's where we're coming up with the 16,000 transfer. So that was part of the
the 307. Oh, okay. The 291 plus the 60. So the 16 we gave from our reserve was because well not an error. They just it it was an invoice that came in late. Plus plus the last storm. Oh, plus
storm. Yeah, don't forget about the loss. I keep forgetting about that. Yeah, everybody wants to. It's kind of like we and this is your first year on on finance committee. You're praying and hoping that you don't get those clouds out after March 1st. We don't have a May snowstone like we did many many years
ago in May. May I remember Mother's Day was? Yeah. So, so that's exactly where the 625 comes from. Okay. So, so, so this is they, so you're saying they did not present this sheet on Wednesday night because they really should have because that would have
because like you said, this tells a lot bigger story. No, they did the pie charts with the colors and here's a big square and here's a little square. Because if because this sheet I mean, you can disagree with with why those numbers are like that, but at least this sheet tells you where they
got the 625, right? Yeah. But if if people are looking for to say these seven lines make up 625,000, you're not getting it. The 625 is a percentage of the overall budget. When you look at it, you could divide it off, you know, that that percentage and
and put a percentage and say it's one and a half% of every wine's going to equal this. It's kind of like so it's it's really the total budget um the total expenses all of the things that we have happening at at town meeting.
Is that a typed in number or is that a No, that's a formula. It is. Can we see it? Yeah. H69 minus H 56. Yeah. 59 here. Okay. So that is a number that balances the budget but that is not a number that
necessarily represents but strong fiscal spending. No, but then but then some of the numbers are estimates and if we're off in our estimates that number could increase. It could increase or it could decrease. Well, it
could decrease and we'd have a little extra money for a rainy day. But but I think the 625 could still be cut. Mhm. I really do. Well, that's where the on the bus budget and looking at Well, we want the upper funds to be cut. Well, but that's but but again, if you take the
opera funds and redirect them all I don't like using those opera funds. No, but it's kind of like those those are the pieces. So, we're right back where we always have been. We we are, but we see we see the number and I wanted to Okay, good.
We've seen the number now. Okay. But it allows you to ask the questions about some some of these pieces. Some of them would like to see exactly how how did they get to some of these? I agree. That's Yeah. How did they get to it? Yeah.
And Mr. Chairman, we yet to see what's actually in the budget under the general line budget. And I think that a little bit problematic on the bus. Yeah. Okay.
So, is this the one that we got today from the town meeting? Um, yeah. Or is this your Well, well, you should have had it from last Saturday. What is that one? This is the one that was sent today
as a part of See, it was also sent. This is the same. This is the same one that he emailed us. Okay. All right. Cuz the number num the number at the back end is the same. 28761 166. Now if you want we can look
at the untouched budget on the bus. What does untouched mean? Um that as it came from like because I get in and do things. Oh jealous of the untouched.
Yeah. because that's what you have had and that's what you've had a chance to look at. So if there's questions um to look at in your this is the one you go for. Okay. So number one on the item BOS salary town administrator NU
whatever that is non-union. Okay. Yeah. They approved 129 for 25 and now they boosted up to 13126. That's a 2% change. $2,000 change. So, is that I think that I think somebody said that
wasn't I thought that was in the contract contract. So, yeah, there's going to most most department heads are going to have a personal services contract. So, these contracts don't take into um consideration u merit, you know,
a good good work. You call that? No. No. Um, exactly. Now the other the other part when we go back and look at the 129 that was Nelson salary for last year a temporary administrator and
oh that was included 29 correct because that that's that would have been more than Nelson's salary for the year. Um but when we did this um August special town meeting there was some money put in for for paying for the inter.
Has he gone away now or we still using him? Um I believe Nelson does not call him anymore. It's been so he was as much as he could he wasn't calling. He was trying to figure out the
answers and get So that's fully Nelson's new salary 1312. Yeah. I hate the proposed cut. Yeah, I want to see. I don't see it. Okay. On the top of the here on the top, it says proposed text. It does.
It's It's misleading the way it's I don't see it. Well, it's not on the one that It's not on the one in the article that you've got the sheet. You got the file. So, she printed the article. Okay. Oh, okay. It's on It's on. So these are the
proposed cuts. Yes. So but no, no, no. What you've got is the you you've essentially got the equivalent of the proposed cuts column, but you're not seeing the column before the proposed cuts because we've just got the you've
just got the file from the article. But if you look at the proposed FY26 cut column, it's Oh, that column's not here. Right. So to me when I read it, it looks like they're proposing the cut cut him 130130. But but that's not button
explained to me that it's it's after. Yeah. It's kind of like propose after cuts. If you throw in the word after in there, that's really what it is. But see, I would rather see the if it was cut $2,000, I'd like to see $2,000 in
that and not closed. I mean, because Okay. This one actually says change 2250. Oh, okay. Well, that's better. Well, but but that's just from FY25. That's not right. Oh, it's not from what
it um on the line. So, the line was 129. Yeah. So, the line was 129,000 in FY25. Again, we know that's not a single person salary. That is the total salary
for interim and TA for the year. Yep. So now, yes, it looks like it only went up $2,000 this year, but this is a full year of Nelson's salary at for his current contract. So yes, it went up $2,000, but his salary went up more than
more than $2,000 because he didn't get all the 129. He didn't get all the 129. So that's all I'm saying is for clarity. for clarity. It's kind of like that that this is a fullear salary got for Nelson
in his contract for 2026 for 2026. So 2025 is Nelson Ross and anyone else who's participating in that in 2025 that may have Yeah. Okay. So we don't really know the So now if I look at that then where it says proposed cuts of the salaries the same that means it's just
going to stay the same for FY26, right? Okay. No cut, no increase. It just stays the same. So the next one, B executive assistant non-unions. Yep. So that stays the same. That
changed. That went up $2,000 from last year from last year. Yeah. No, I get it. I get it. And it went up 4.47%. Is that part of the contract to increase 4.47? I think didn't they only get a 4%? No. What?
that that position shouldn't have a contract. It's But didn't they all get a 4% when we went through four is four, but 4.47 is not four. Well, okay. What do you mean? Okay. It's not No, you're right. It's closer to five. Well, four.
Well, it's four and a half. It's not four. Yeah. Four. Four is a number. Why are we doing a extra half? Yeah. This is the kind of stuff I like looking at. You can see everything. Yeah. Temporarily help temporary help went
away completely. Yeah. Yeah. So those are the changes. Yeah. Community services went away. And what happened to remember we talked about this. Does that mean her benefits also not benefits but that money that they were saving? Remember
they were saving 10 20. Yeah. The 20. Yeah. There was the buildup fund. The buildup fund. We we were trying to build up the tolerance into into the budget so that we'd be able to before we take on the salary in the position when her money goes away. Correct. But now we
decided that that she's gone. The position is gone. Where's the money? Um you'll see it a little bit further down when we get to town clerk. Are you talking community outreach? Yes.
Okay. Then that's my answer. answer. Okay. All right. We'll move down. So then we got So she So all right. So All right. That might be clarity. You were asking about the buildup money, correct? Right. I think Don's referring to the
to the what? To the ARPA money. To the opera money. So those are two different things. So those are two different things. Yeah. Sorry. The buildup money is gone. So when we look at this year's budget, we're not building towards that. We're going to have a higher percentage if we take those salaries on. Yeah. But
where did the money go? That's my question. Is it went into free cash? It's part if if we don't use it to pay the salary and we didn't at the end of the year it gets certified as part of free cash. So her the money for last
year went in. This again this is if you look at the 2020 FY 2025 when we close this year in June in about December or January we're going to see those 40,000 as part of free cash
because we didn't we didn't because we didn't use it right so it'll come back to us but it comes back in free cash I thought we put free cash for school no that's what this year is free cash next year we get a new set a new bucket of free I'm I'm sorry.
You guys were putting that aside on the previous year too. Was three years, wasn't it? 24 25. So what you're saying is if you don't spend it one year, it goes to free cash. So if it was built up the year prior, Don,
what happened to the money from the year prior if you were building it up? It's free cash. That's the free cash we just spent. So that you were putting it in to build it up year over year. Well, what he's saying is it was being put into the budget. It
wasn't you weren't taking money and sticking it in a little container. It was just in the budget. It was a budget number. They we were trying to build the operating budget up to be able to support the positions. But doesn't it represent real money? It represents real
money that if you didn't use it at the end of the year, it's it becomes part of the free cash bucket. I get what you're saying, Kim, because you're saying if it was 20,000 in 2024, and we didn't put it into free cash. No, we we
did that for sure. We Yes. Because at the end of FY24, which was January or June of last year, that was just certified in in January, that there was the the 479,000. But if she was still working, if she was still
working, she was paid by Arbor. Paid by Arbor. So the buildup money was the buildup money was separate. So the buildup money built up and then went away the next year because we didn't use it. I don't I don't No, it didn't go away. It got moved. I think the buildup is not like a
savings account because what like I'm think the buildup is to in that amount so that half% more on that and inflate the budget again to eventually absorb it. We're starting to gradually fund it. Not
really though. It's just like a placeholder, right? It was a placeholder and then that money didn't get expended. It rolled over to the next year as part of free cash. Because when you say build up, it's not really building up in the
budget. Build building up the total budget. All right. by by those amounts. Okay. So now we we're not doing that. So now we're not. So this year FY26 has gone to zero. Community service persons off the plate. Human resources manager's
gone down to zero. So she No, it says funded fully by opera in FY2. Right. See in the notes. Oh, I don't have notes. You don't have notes. I don't have fully funded by But I thought we asked for that to be terminated and
reallocated. We did. We asked. We asked. Oh, but they didn't. I guess they didn't agree with us. They didn't agree with us. Okay. They didn't they didn't agree with us. It's still there. The recommendation, right? So, we can make the recommendation to the people. Yes. Because if they if they ignore us, the
people might be okay with it, right? Yeah. Put a star next to that. Okay. So then grant administrator, we don't even have one. No, we we have a grant administrator, but it was moved from the board of selectment into land
use area. So this this is a line that has it's it's a legacy line. discount if we need to. So the $4,000 for professional services hasn't changed.
Okay. So land transfer. Um I believe the professional services they said was the printing of the report. Oh, right. Yeah. Okay. Kind of like Yeah, we're going back on that. I thought that was
professional services. Professional services. Oh yeah, because we have 9 grand that we don't know what that is. So that's like so the 4,000 and then we have the town reports is 5,000. But I understand town reports printing. Yep.
Are there services? I don't understand that. Okay. So then we've got the web master. We've got office supplies. Right. Other supplies. Mhm. So the office supplies has been cut and and
again they you're not highlighted in yellow but in our version they're highlighted in yellow to show the lines that they travel and mileage went down to never get changed training and contractual state
22. Yeah. Dues and membership. What didn't we ask what those dues and membership and we just got a vague? I mean everybody I think that's important to know what that is. Okay. They they ignore this. No, I I um
because they they have the same things. They can go to MMA. They can go to the the Yeah. Yeah. But do they both go or does one go? We paying for two or we playing for one? What are we doing? We don't know. That's a mystery. And if we go to a five select board, will that
increase? Yeah, we don't even know what it is, right? When when we go to five, if we go to five, when we go to five, when when all of these three is not working, let's be honest.
Okay. Why do you think five will be better? Yeah. Well, but at least there'll be somebody there to run the show. You know, if they have a majority, you can still run the town. Yeah. No, I know. [Music]
It's a bit of a safety battle. But then again, but then it's going to increase the budget. It's going to increase the board of selecting cost, but you don't know. Maybe they'll be less negligent about spending. You never know. Five people have to justify substantive change. And again, there's no salaries
or border select for. So when if we're talking and there's our refund 10,000, right? We we dropped from 50,000 to 40,000, but we're going to regain that in December, right? We hope you can ask
we try asking the accountant account accounting salary. So she went she went up only 14. Now, where's the where's that line item that remember? She told us that she was making more because the other company
was making less. Yes. Yes. Because she was last joint meeting um the board of selection that um it was not um memorialized. They did not find
anybody and she was told something. She believed it. And guess what? And has been getting paid that and had been getting if you look at the BBA, you'll see that it's over. And then now they decided it wasn't memorialized. So she's
out of Wow. So they cut her salary. What a way to win friends and influence people. I'm sorry. I just have to say that her salary was not cut. She's getting a 4%
increase. Oh, but it looks like over the Yeah, it it doesn't look that way from but here it says proposed cuts. It's her salaries going down from 74 to 66. It's it's not highlighted. There was no
contract that had the 74,000 in it. Okay, we understand. Okay. Okay. So then, all right, let's move on to the next. We don't want to pick that. for accounting agents support
staff. Is that the company? No, the support staff is Lee O'Brien. So, or another person? Another person in the office. Um who did not get cut. Okay. Right. Yeah. No, because her her salary has been
earlier in the year. She she passed and bumped up on the longevity and that's why we increased over the tech services that's separate the tech services um okay the tech services is that location where
we've been cutting and you see in that company that's the company yeah it was Markham I think it's like see now or something accounting professional this is the audit you haven't seen an
audit yet you will be seeing audits soon. Now, what kind of audit is this? This is this is a full audit of our books. Every year we have to have a full audit of the books. The auditors come in um and request from the treasur
accountant reports and they go back and do a full audit. In the end they will give us their findings, recommendations and and we will have a joint meeting with finance committee audit committee and board to select and I am the audit
committee rep from finance committee that's it was it it was a position boarded in December of last year and we discontinued it. to those. So then we go down to the assessor and that we knew that was happening because when we
talked to her wage support staff of the board now something that we haven't seen and when we get to the articles um for the assessors when you mention it just because we're on the assessor um there
have usually been a warrant article for x number of thousand dollar 8,000 to put in an account. So, we're going instead of having one year bump 25,000 to pay for the revaluations. Um, right.
We want to make sure that we see that. Well, we went up to,400 from 850 for the for the assessors. Where where are you? I'm on line 58. Holding. What is it? 850. Well, there's two two in the assessor's
office. Oh, two. And they don't get probably They don't get the same. I think it's an 825. What do they need clothing for? They board of assessors do. Do they go out in the mud? Okay. What are they talking about? They
do around town year. I guess every year they get they get $800 a new for workers. Yeah. Are they wearing towns and logos on these things? It would be
nice if they did. I I don't know if they I think if we're paying for it, we should they should be. Yeah. Well, they should be a vendor. Should be right. The like um building everybody gets a real signature. Yeah. Well, it can be cuter. Well, well, you know,
it doesn't have to be, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I'm putting Star Next because I I I I think that's um that should be a negotiation. Negotiations are for the other four, did they say, or next year? Next year. Yeah.
I'm not opposed to but but yeah, I think it's going to be right. Yeah. Yeah. I understand longevity. That's fine. I can do it. Okay. Maintenance for the board of assessors. Repair and maintenance.
Repair and maintenance for their equipment. Or do they have cars or No, they don't they don't have cars. I'm trying to think of it. I think this was their software. What's their software that they're using? Okay. Because we don't we don't have something with this software.
So, they a lot of it ends up in maintenance. Oh, here's that mapping for MC. Um, this is this is just their mapping. Yes. Yeah. Patient consulting did. Yeah. So, that
the Patriot Consulting, you'll see that's the expense that gets moved over from the This is pretty much what she said when she came in, right? Yeah. And you can see that on with the for us the
yellow lines cut and reduced office supplies membership cut down treasure collection wages what's that treasurer treasurer collective wages nonun that would be um
and what's a 77 that's a non-union and then down below it's The union the the union is the staff in the office this year. Oh, okay. Oh, there's two. Okay. Oh, so one will be Melissa and one
will be Jody, right? Um, no. Jod's assessor. Um, Jennif Jennifer and Anthony and Anthony. Yeah. She told us Oh.
That's the way stuff down. Professional and technical services that went up. Yeah, they she gave us if if we go back to the book, she gave us a a list and
breakdown of everything. She had software content that right going up this year. She gave us the the full list of everything that's in that plan. Right. Same thing. Town council. Oh, okay. So,
everybody good with tax? Pretty much what she told us. Yeah. Town council. The legal they went up 3%. They went up 3%. They they were originally trying to go to 85, so they
backed it off 2500. um their rates did go up this year. So um and judging from where we are in the BBA so far this year, it looks looks good. So maybe maybe we can stick to the net if we're if we have the same kind of legal year.
And then do we shop the legal or do we just stick with um so far we've been sticking with the with the company that we got the contract with and that's been our town council. he was out of town at the town meeting and we
had somebody different. So, so by having it as you know with with a full office they can substitute people as necessary so people can take vacations. Mhm. Okay. MIS information.
Your it. That's your it. Oh, this is the one. Yeah. Guardian. Guardian is the big big dollar. The 160. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what they We're going to look at this, remember? Um, we're gonna
look at that, but not Yep. Yeah. Not Not finished. Right. Right now. So, they they went back and and discussed the contract. Um, the conversation I had said that they reduced the number of hours per month a little bit to to bring it back to the 160 instead of the
earlier. 40 hours. 160. That's a number. No, no, no. It's kind of they they reduced a couple of hours, you know, clarity on that. I believe that one of those people were on um when that
contract went to bed, was it a recurring contract that could discontin because usually there's sunset like it's three years or I think it was the last contract was 2022. So if it's up for
reattract the contract term ends 30 June And so, but it automatically renews with no more than a 10% increase if neither party says anything. So, the board of So, if the town doesn't say anything and in Guardian doesn't say anything, it
automatically renews with it up to a 10% increase or no more than 10% increase. So, how how long would not be shopping that? Well, I don't know who. That's a good question. Well, to me, I would never
sign a contract that had an automatic renewal. So, who's doing a contract? So, but we asked Dave asked if dur for these negotiations if the person from FinCon could be present.
Well, that was I was asking for the union contract negotiation. Not necessarily this one. Well, I think you need to all but the other one is Metro Gov automatically renews. It expire the term expires 30 June 25 with an
automatic renewal with a 3 and a half% increase. Um so so we got to look at that one too. So personally I would never sign a contract that has an automatic and I guess my question would be from a con perspective what would you
recommend to us as voters we're being given automatic pension pauses for service vendors. But if it sounds like they may have already given well I don't know and if
that is the case it seems like there let's see till the end. Our recommendation. You mean our recommendation across the board on these kind of contracts and this one in
particular if it's not signed doesn't I don't know if it's been signed. Has it been sign? No. It sounds like you Well, I heard something on the board meetings. We're not allowed to ask questions at those. Correct. Yeah. So you got to ask them
here from the can and sometimes there's guidance that we don't do an automatic and that we should be um what's what's today? Today is 22nd. Okay. Um I think we're too late. Okay.
What does this says? This one guardian guardian 30day notice 90 a 90day notice. KCa agenda some not watching the shot. So it says this SLA commences on the
date of acceptance of this contract and continues for for three-year term unless terminated sooner in accordance with the termination provisions of this agreement. The term will renew automatically for successive one-year
periods subject to no more than a 10% increase unless either party notifies the other in writing of its desire not to renew at least 90 days prior to the expiration of the then current term. Well, they must have done something
because it didn't increase. Well, that's that's what I'm saying. I I would have done okay. So, they must have done something. I don't know if they were doing a one-year term, but it's kind of on the next, right? Yet again, we don't know. But I guess we could make
a recommendation that for the It's probably too late for this year, but for next year to go out for Excuse me. I hope it wasn't three year. No, it's it said one year. Okay. Thank you. Well,
but possibly negotiated another threeyear deal. So, we Oh, we are. That's true. Right. If they just could because like like Don said, they did some negotiation because they reduced the hours to get us back to the same amount. That's true. And so what we
don't know is that term one year or three year. So can we find that out? Y then we can make our motion. Well, probably should. This isn't the only So I think there'll be more.
Now, here's a really good one. Accounter of decrease. Okay. So, if we we're good with Am I? Well, not really, but Okay. So, the town clerk that promoted the what the FY26 number for town clerk. How
do you say that the So, how is it that you pick and choose who you're going to bump and who you're going toward? What the town clerk should go down? The 30th of the of the month. We have a new brand new I know how much we're
down. Where's I'm not So, I was going to say ignore ignore that. Um, ignore column G. So if you look at column F, um town clerk salary was for FY25 was
79,280, right? Um and what they're saying it's an elected position and there's going to be a new town coming in. So they're recommending that they go to the supervisor grade grade F step one for 40hour job to be the
$70,000 for the new town clerk that it is elected. Oh, I see. So they created All right. Okay. So, so yeah. So it's it's a decrease, but you've had you're losing somebody with experience that's gone through the steps, right? Um year
over year. Okay. So that's I guess that's that's that's the town clerk. Correct. Okay. So then we have the other staff. Then we then we have the assistant and this is Oh, they don't want Jess to work
anymore at the office. Okay. So, you're you're see you're seeing that piece. If you look up on the screen, um line 120 for the for the operating staff, the note is
$19,000 funding for ARPA. So, when you Okay. Yeah, but ARPA is going to run out. ARPA will run out. So when we get to FY27, we need to be able to plan for a 4% increase over last year to this
number with a 4% increase in FY27's budget which will be about 54,000. So point of clarification, Mr. insurance. It's not of the 27 from ARPA. It should say with an
additional,000 from to fund. Yeah. Additional keyword additional creating new position. Yeah. So, this is a union position. So, so this is a new position. No, this is a union position. Oh, how's the union feel about this? Well, they're
not they're not the the salary doesn't change. The salary is not changing. They're still going to get paid their full amount. It's just that some comes from the town, some comes from Arbor to make the position whole, but it won't be there next year. But I thought the assistant, but it has to be in our
operating budget. That's why I have asked for give me something beyond FY26. Let's see what FY27 looks like. Let's see what I guess they don't think like that. I started to put it together. That's right. So when the town's people get
their packet, it's going to look like this. It's not going to be that. No. And so so the town's people are going to say, "Oh, we have a new town clerk coming in." Yeah. And oh, we are going to cut the assistant after 12 months or
however many months. So we're not encouraging. So So if the assistant now is going to move to a new job, are they the hirer know that? We don't know. Well, they're assuming, but maybe not. Maybe. Maybe not. Okay. Right. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. No, I understand what you're
saying. You would think you would want to keep the assistant if you're getting a new one to help the transition for however at least 12 months at least. Yeah. No, I I agree. Yes. Are they looking at operative to say if it goes
away they appoint I guess the time go away. This this is the assistant town court is not it's the assistant. So there will not be one next year. Next year will be gone because there's no more arbitants.
I'm not so they're trying to say that we'll put in 20 extra thousand to hold it as as a holder as a marker. But what they're saying is to fund the position for this year there's two pieces. There's a piece that comes from the town and there's a piece that comes
from opera. I don't understand how we are able to use those opera funds for salaries. Very very similar to it said zero, but if you're paying the salary and it's coming from opera. So this is a you got to make up the 20 grand. You
have to make up the 20 once it goes away. Once it goes away. Yeah. So yeah. So what do we tell whoever it is? You might not have a job next year. No, I I don't I'm not reading that. This this this is all about a one-year budget. That's all I'm seeing
here is trying to get here and make a one-year budget get it get it passed. But so that you're going to have to be fair right now. The board of selectmen have decided that they're the whole ones that hold the budget. So from a towns
person perspective, I would think that it would be better served to have it be from the board of select men's budget where they have been the ones that have been a sold cider and the funds have been under the board of select line item. I agree. I
think that's a very good recommendation. I think we should make that. I mean yeah to the make it be consistent. That's where that's where services coordinator. That's where the 19,000 lies is under the board of selectments
budget. Just like the HR position is under the board of selectments. That's where that revenue lies. So, put it there. It's I think cleaner for the town's people to understand where it's coming from. I think that's a good suggestion.
What are you do about it? Well, it assistant. So, right. Yeah. So, hold on. I'm just going to 120. So, I'm just going to go back. You say she's not in the union either. No, she's union. No, she's not union. She's not union. No, Jess is your union. No, but the
executive assistant is nonun. Oh, yeah. The executive to the board of selectment is nonun. Correct. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. We went through all this and this
is zero. No change. [Music] We had a change. So, didn't she come in last week and asked to increase the election? It was the origin budget increased
due to the fact that we got rid of the constable. And what are we going to do about are we going to we make a recommendation on the floor that we don't get rid of the conible? We did. We we don't have anything. I thought we we did do that. I
think it'll be on town meeting four. Oh, town meeting four. Okay. We did do something. I know we we didn't make that recommendation last at our last meeting. Well, obviously didn't go too well.
So, because the thing recommends the budget, are you going to have a whole presentation first on your recommendations? That's what we wanted to do this year. And I I we discussed having John Barrett, the
moderator, let the um board of selectman read and then have a comment from the fincom. We haven't he hasn't agreed to that yet, right? Yeah. No, it I I haven't asked but if if we if we want article
two is to or one is to take any reports from any boards. So, it's right there for Well, I mean, I just would feel better if we were part of the right the discussion on the on the on the article, but it doesn't I don't like raising my
hand. Yeah. Well, because he can't see us. Yeah. Right. So I think I should say and then what does the FinCom have to say about because it's apparent that people want to hear what we have to say but maybe not the select maybe not the town administrator maybe not the people
who are creating the budget but I think the town wants to hear what we have to say they they've demonstrated that I believe so I think we should be next part of the program because remember we are state appointed
because of the size of the budget we Yeah, we're not just created for no reason. So, do you think that John will I I I can talk to John. We'll we'll see where we sit because if it's at the high
school, it's going to be a different setup. So, we'll see. Oh, is it possible for the high school? I think I saw something about the high school. Yeah. For the May town meeting. Yeah. Y high school page one. Oh.
at the auditorium. So we'll see how performing arts auditorium. Nice to either the constables. We don't have any. So who's going to post? Should have been posted today. Two weeks out also before they left.
Okay. So we're going to have another meeting to create our recommendations and who's going to say what and who's going to speak. Okay. We'll have a platform. Okay. Okay. Okay. We will see. Okay. So, the
elections is line 142. Yeah. Okay. The elections um professional services that was increased. Yeah. It was um what 3,700. Yeah. You need to bring you need to re re
uh review G column G. Okay. G That's why I like my mouse better. There you go. Thank you. I had hidden it. Yeah. So, it had been 3,700 as we were earlier this year and now it's at
4,500 because of the we're using. Is it $800? Yeah. Per election. Per election. Yeah. the one because it said 19,000 reduced 19,000 for our funds, right? But in the war one that came out today, they
reduced it 17. Let's see. Oh, 17 336. Yeah, it says 19,000 for there. Yeah. So, how does that where's the where's the rest of the money? No, I think the minus7
is just the difference from FY25. And if you add if you add 19 to the 27, you come up with 467. So, that's why that's why you see the that's why you see that difference. The columns are different on the warrant. Yes. The columns are different on the warrant than they are on this, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because the col the warrant basically is just doing I think columns F and H, right? Which is why I hit it. So that Right. Or is it maybe doing column E? Is that column E or column?
It will probably be column F because that was what was finalized for the budget. Okay. After after all the Y after the special meeting, right? So the clerk is pretty much what she told us. The clerk um with the exception
of that collection and then the the changes that they had done the reduction of office supplies postage in the complex conservation 39466. How'd that happen? registration 28 164. Last year it was
39. This year it's 46. That's a big jump. Well, it the notes and you don't see the notes. It says partially funded by ARP in past years. So this is in past years, right? So the 39,000 I think they were funding five hours per week with
the upper funding and so they the upper funding for that position is over and so they brought it to 46,000. So what position is this actually? What's the cons who's the the conservation agent? Isn't that Cody? Is that Kobe Strer or is that Beth Fax? No,
that's Cody. Yeah, but he wasn't there last year. You still budget for the position and again if we didn't use the money it becomes free cash or at the end of the year we can trans do but oh union so it automatically increases after six
months is that how that goes. He's only been there a couple of months right? Yeah it's only been he was recently hired right yeah again we as we hire bring people in. Oh so we increase his but we decrease the temper. Okay I get
it. No, I see how this works. I get it, right? And he was hired new. So, there is a little conflict there. Uh, yeah, I would say so. I guess it's pick and choose friends and family. Actually, I
would like to speak to that. Amber, who was in the position and had only been in a few months, was also hired at the same rate as KBY. There were funds from ARPA which have been removed. So, it is an entrylevel position.
What step did he start at, Veronica, please? I don't know the step off the top of my head, and I don't have that information in front of me, but I'm sure you can look it up. Watch the watch the movie. Right. So, all right. Here we go. Okay. And
then it just um $600. Okay. What's 160 con conservation commission? Okay. Material services. I guess that's the same as the only the only two lines that that
changed for the 169 and 171 uh reduced $200 for the supplies and material right for the memberships. Yeah. Memberships for MR PC different than the mapping. No, I understand. Now,
the MRPC that is the state mandated because we're considered close to the MBTA. No, no, that's that's the RPC is Massachusetts regional planning commission. Oh, okay. Um, so
they get they do a lot of central central mass a little. They do grants and stuff. Yeah, they do. And I just found out that I guess they forgot a whole section something. So we won't be getting grants. Is that what Well, it's
not it's they're doing a whole thing at the senior center. I don't even understand why, but I signed up for it just so I because I'm the chairperson and I wasn't even I only found out by accident and I thought it was conditionally
approved by the state and then I find out that they like lost the whole section and I don't even know anymore. Okay, so this is the planning board support staff.
What happened to that? Whatever. Mhm. Yeah. So, that one's the same as we were told. Mhm. Yeah. Wages for the board of appeals. Zoning board of appeals. Is that Jackson? Yeah, she's she does quite a few. Yeah, I think
she's on three or something. I think Yeah, I think she gets paid from three different She's like administrative help. Administrative help three departments, right? Yeah. Land use wages. So, they reduced the land. Do we have a
land use coordinator? I believe the land use coordinator was an open position if I read the last. No, I don't think we have. Oh, yes. No, I don't think that's the place again. Um, well, the note is looking like a $45 an hour part-time
contractor need to discuss with the union. So, it's a union position. It's a Yeah, it's a union position. So, if they're going to do something different with it, they need to have So, there's $30,000 right there, right? It was reduced from the
5295 which was originally proposed. Um, so we're looking at doing it a different way, but it's next to that. Yeah, that that one I believe the position was not filled. Um, it's an open position and they're it
sounds like they're working to uh to change it to change it by hiring somebody or to position make it non-union and hire a contractor partially and at the 30,000 instead of the 5295.
Oh, question. Yes, I I talked to Nelson about this and I I had a note from um the April 3rd meeting with the flood board where Veronica had had said this could actually be 15,000 and then Nelson told me that it could be 15,000 also because
it's just in there to do the storm water reporting right now and he didn't even think it was something that we necessarily needed right now except to have somebody to do that which might be better off on a contracted basis but but it has said several times that that
number could be 15,000. So that could be reduced. Sounds like it could be reduced. We could recommend reduction based on the town administrator and selectment comments. I'm just trying for when we solidify our
y then thank you D. Then we have our land use housing and grant administrator. Do we have that person? Is that the person in the land in the conservation office? Beth. No, no, not Beth. No, it's another
person. It's a man. I've never met that person, but I know that they exist. Oh, they do exist. Okay. So, and they're making 16,781. Okay. Okay. So they hired Oh, so Aaron left and they
hired somebody like that to tweet. Wow. Interesting. So then we have the administrative system again. This is Beth, right? Yes. Up close 850 up. No close. Yeah. Again, if you don't have a person, you don't
have a person. If they hire a contractor and contract, they probably Okay, good to know. So, well, land use professional and technical services, if it's a
contractor, do we have to pay for those? I mean, wouldn't it follow all the way through? Why would we pay $200 for mileage if it's a contractor? Why would we train him? And why would we pay for his dues and membership? Just asking.
Yep. I mean, if it's one way, it's that way. If it's the other way, y both ways. No, you're right. No, but it's kind of like on the professional technical services, we we don't have a list of what they what they are looking but we don't know what their contract is. Well,
it right and and what tools they may need on the town. So, we need more information. That's more information. Yeah, those are more information. Facilities. Oh, here we go. for general government.
General I don't even know where to begin with this. So that's the salary of the facilities person and his staff or department head department head. Yeah. Okay. The maintenance tech gone gone
men's custodian stayed the same. Oh no. Yeah. From last year non union. Yeah. And the administrative assistant. Yeah. To the facilities. To the facilities. Yeah. Who's that? Oh, I
know. Do Okay. Well, I don't know. I think that's who it is. And then we have a part-time cleaner. Why does it say that was it? It was a specific. So, that job doesn't exist. That one That one doesn't exist. The
only other one is the temporary. Oh, they got it now for close. Yep. That's that and the auto auto went away when we purchased the truck. Oh, repairs went down.
Yeah, that was Did they stop repairing or did is everything? Um, they're probably just squeezing the budget like trying to trying to squeeze the budget. Oh, okay. Yeah. Repair, maintenance,
that went down. They all went down. I'm nervous about that. No, that's a fiveyear plan, right? You got to maintain that. You have to maintain things. Um, we're going to end up as demand. Yep.
Oh, we're going to be paying me bucks later on. Yeah. All right. Next. Communications. What is that? Phone. What's that communication for the facilities? Does anybody remember
that? You remember everything? You remember that? No, I don't remember. Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with police and fire, does it? No. Um, that might be the system.
That would be under facilities. that would because we took it out of the library and I'm pretty sure Oh, they really cut their They really cut. Yeah, it's kind of
worrisome, but I guess if you cut the grass water, if you don't use the water, it'll die and then I don't think you know, but
those phone, radio, etc. for communications. He's got her notes on there. He did cut one. Okay, now we're coming. Oh, no. That was that was the lieutenant was because
it was miscalculated at the beginning. Was was in there in the beginning. Yeah. So, where's the new police act? The uh line 258, I think. Yeah.
Wages for officers. Isn't it three police officers that are going to be but we made an assumption before we knew about the That's the school resource officer. Oh, okay. Okay.
But aren't they getting like three newbies like out of the academy training though? That was under the training. Okay. That was that was under the training. But um this is this is where earlier it was at 9004. Now it was at 979. So that's the increase for the school
resource. 22% increase in stipens. So I guess that just again that was probably the lieutenant adding the lieutenant into that. Oh right. He moved it out of sal. We moved it out of sal.
So they dropped their energy. Oh, they got the solar pan. Um I think that's why he dropped his um energy. He had to post him. Is that Isn't that the whole reason for doing it? They put them up. They're up now.
Yeah. But it doesn't matter. I'm not sure how Well, it's probably they sell it, right? No, if it's anything. So, like what I have I have solar panels on my house. I pay a rate to the solar companies, right? And and then I And then check. No, I don't get a check
back. If I if if I overproduce, it gets fed back to Unatil and I get a credit. Get a credit. Yeah. Yeah. And so they're probably I would imagine they're doing something similar. So they still have to pay an energy bill, but now they're paying it to somebody else instead.
And he get covered parking. So he he What's this one? Professional services again. Oh, that's a training. $3,000 increase on professional for the three new people. No, we we'll have to ask him again for
clarification. I know I don't recall that we asked for professional services before. Oh, okay. I'll go back I'll go back over the notes. What about 278? I I'm sorry. Um 274
vehicle supplies. Are you asking professional services? Yes. Maybe that's the PR firm in the psychological custom. PR firm in the psychological I think perhaps but you can double check
that other supplies. Do we talk about other? That's Jerry's other. You like it when they say what the other is travel mileage in the state miscellaneous are my favorites. Oh yeah.
So he he he's pretty much saying when he came in Was that the debt? Is that the debt? No, that's those are the cruisers. Cruisers lease the lease that he deferred, right? He deferred he deferred it. So it jumped a lot this year because now we're paying
the school year, right? Yeah. There's the training increased the training. That must be for the streaming people. Yeah. Then again, I think he went over this year's budget on there. So, he went
over. Yeah. Any other questions from police? Anybody? Now we come to fire assistant fire chief tan these are they contract yeah
2% 4.49 49 increase. Thank you. Contract fireman EMS. Oh, this is one person the captain. Is that more than one person? Judging from the wages, it's one.
Okay. And then the lieutenant. What did you say? Was that one or two? One person. One. It's one. So, we have one fire chief, one lieutenant. I'm sorry. One assistant fire chief, one fire prevention
captain, one operating staff lieutenant and then you're into the EMS captain. Oh yeah, this EMS. Who's that? We can we can get and look it up if he's been appointed. It would be online.
And then the paramedics. Yep. That's a grouping. That's more than one, right? Yeah. Yeah. Do you know how many it is? Um, not know. Okay. How many? No. And the they can vary. Most recent. It
It could vary. Yeah. I mean, they they could leave. It's kind of like it goes up and down. So this is gonna I know this is going to blow everything out to portion but is there and the fire budget is huge. It is. But so is there any squeezing at all
with the fire or are we just like is that hands off because um it again we've been if if we look at positions and things you if you eliminate a position you're probably going to overtime and bring overtime.
Okay. It's kind of like you you've got a schedule 247 and so there's no room in the fire. No. If you if you did it have to be in the expense area. Oh, no. I'm not saying people necessarily. I'm saying the whole You're
saying the budget as the whole budget as a whole, not not necessarily people. Yes. Is the one line? There's one question. Yeah. replace it was reduced by 5,000.
What line is that? Uh 241. Okay. What's the difference between I'm sorry. I'm going to go back a little bit. That's okay. looking at it this 293 and
296 both 116. Oh well no they're both different but they're both almost the same. What is the difference of the salary of the assistant fire chief? No. One's a coordinated captain and the other one is a the assistant
fire chief. Assistant fire chief. I guess they're they're making about the same salary. Yeah, I guess within $400. I thought I was seeing it twice, but I' seen it once or twice.
Okay. Yeah, that's all. It's It's not not the same person. It's just It's not the same person, right? No, but it's almost the same person. Well, never mind. New equipment. Oh,
fires. New equipment. So, what what that's not the truck. That's not the truck. That is typically equipment. 341 you're on. Yeah. 339. 339.
Like it doesn't say what the new equipment is. I mean, don't you think that should we He He listed off a bunch of stuff. Was that the bunker equipment bunker equipment on the team? No, but I mean I think it's you know
like the breathing apparatus your mask change the ambulance from basic to advance like no it's the other this this is generally um turnout equipment and things they need to get to fires and be
safe. So when he when he got the new trucks when he bought the new trucks, somebody asked a question about where do the old trucks go and what happens? Do we get I think that was my question. I think it was your question.
I don't think I were going to answer them. He said something. Well, they could be sold. Yeah, that's what you said. They could be sold if they were refurbished. So they could be sold when you get a good price for them. To know what where are they? Where do they go? Don't you think that's a good question?
This should be answered. But it would sound like if they refurbished them, they could sell them. But what if they don't refurbish them? Do they get a lower price, right? Well, yeah, they get a lower price. Or maybe nobody would buy them because maybe they don't have enough whatever whatever they need to
put out a fire. I think you'd be able to sell them, but you wouldn't get nearly as much of a price if it's not equipped. Well, do we get do we get a turnin price like a car? I don't know. Trade in. I don't think I don't No, it didn't sound like a trade in. So, we just give them
away. So, with I don't Yeah, I don't know what we could be surplus equipment. Yeah, surplus equipment. Don't you have to go through a process to have it voted as surplus it or whatever they call and
then posted? Yeah. And then post if it's surplus, right? We we did that with a card, didn't we? We did. Yeah. Card a couple years ago. Yeah. So, so we're getting two new fire trucks. Mhm. Brand brand spanking new. Top of the line, gold bar. Correct. So, they should be
Where are the old ones? Right now, I would say they're in the firehouse. I think what you're just What do we do with it? Are they actual replacements? Are they in addition to Oh my god. They have to be replaced. They couldn't
possibly when they were presented as capital planning, they were re They were 20 years old. 20 21 years old, you know. Okay. So, what happened? Can't I went up to Eminem metal and had I have no idea. At least get scrap scrap metal
cost or something. Third world and get I don't know. Yeah. So, I think we should I think that should be answered just for our own Oh, excuse me. I have a question about the new fire trucks. We did the 80,000 from
free cash at the special town meeting. Technically, shouldn't we have borrowed that because it's a price increase in something that was voted to be borrowed, which would then add $80,000 back into the available free cash. We believe so.
Correct that at the time. I have seen something similar, but I I I'd have to check with town council. I saw it in another town. Jerry asked that question. I investigated um and they did a very similar thing in Nashville as a matter
of fact it was it's kind of like brought back but it's too late to get a loan article on to town meeting now. So what can is it too late to so we can't get a warrant article
until meeting floor and and I don't think you can you you can't bring something up like that unless it's a war on the water out of you can't just pop some pop a question like that at town meeting but did they close this the
I said last year the special town meeting war didn't close until the date of the special of the actual town meeting Um, so if that's still open, couldn't it be put on the special one? Let me check. Wait, wait, wait two weeks. It has to be posted today.
They both have to be posted today. I don't believe you can change anymore once they're posted. Nobody can bring it up on the floor. That would that would keep the reserves intact, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
So, can't we ask a question to find out where the trucks go? We can ask. Yeah. Yes. And they just haven't got it on the to-do list. So, we'll ask again. I mean, I'd be thinking about that yet since they're going
waiting for the trucks to arrive. They can't dispose of them until they get the new trucks. Right. Right. Well, I can't wait until tariffs kick in and they got to come up with some X and we don't have that. Bar that. Yeah, that we don't know. That's when I
thought that all the equipment, all the vegetarian was in the United States. That's what they were told. That's what we were told. Yeah, but we know that the company and I understood it as everything for the first truck. Yeah, just the first one. Just the first truck.
So they'll be back. We need to keep keep an eye on it and see see where this Okay. Aren't they coming together? No. No. Six months apart. I heard Yeah. No,
they weren't coming together. Oh, June December. That That was my understanding. We can we can um the emergency management or tea um both the new equipment and
replacement equipment arms were taken out from equipment repair and maintenance um 1700s. No still in place. They um and you may not even see them. They don't they don't have a budget line
number here. Um they they had put in two lines on request and then I believe it was Nelson's recommendation we were going to try to fund some with free cash stabilization neither of which we have and then last is the communications
in why is it all zeros um that is we used to have a communication center in dispatch ourselves And so those lines are still in place from when it was. Now we outsource it. Okay. Outsource the
patriot. And that's the other services line. That's the other service. Okay. So when we have this patriots, do we just blindly pay our third or 10th or whatever it is? Or do we get itemization so we know what we're getting or do we
just blindly pay? Um I would the the two chiefs are on um committee I believe. So they they should be knowing what the what the details are, but the patriot will come out with the towns that they service and
give an assessment just okay. Building commissioner. Okay. I have a question on the building. Okay. Y So we have the building commissioner inspector
at 80,000 or 58,000. That seems to be Oh, no. It's 60. Is that 60 earlier in the year? 63. 6320. And
then we have the other building inspector. The alternate. The alternate. Yeah. Yeah. So, why don't we just have one building inspector? [Music] um because he's not a full-time
inspector and the alternate inspector goes in when he's not available. Again, if you if you go back to does it does that have the FY24 Yeah. budget in there? Yeah. Um if you look up, we have the
FY24 on the top. Um, we used to pay back we paid74,708 for a building commissioner. We had one, right? We had one person that was that was Eric and he had an alternate and that alternate was just
over $1,000. At the time we were paying $75,800. Mhm. Now we're paying 70,320 with these two. They they they complement each other with the hours they in the office and and out doing there. Oh, so this was
a reduced overall it's reduced um rate once we lost Eric. He stepped um Rich stepped in and and uh that he could he could do it but needed needed the
support of the additional the alternate inspector and those are contracts, right? Are they renewed in a year or are they first? Um I don't know about their contract like this. Usually the first contract is 3 years. Oh, okay. So I think it's three
years. Okay. So then that Oh, they have a car vehicle expenses because they're going out. Oh, to their own cars, I guess. Yeah. For their own cars. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the alter the alternative is to have them drive here when you get
another vehicle, but then you're insurance, right? That's that's the number that we and the professional services of 12,000. What was that? Um, okay. In if you you don't have to
know, it's um to increase the printer lease. It's to the principal lease and the permanent permanent link expenses together is the $12,000. So to when we did the incoming Yeah.
revenue did the permanent incoming come in on it? I want to see where it came in. I think it's part of the 2 million revenue for fees. Um but we did decrease permanently
It was originally 15,000. If I do the math here, this is about 7,800 um that they're paying the permit link, which means if they're only paying 7,800 for permit link, should we have reduced the revenues coming in?
It's kind of a wash, right? Link numbers go up, it's because we're doing more permits, so we'll get more we'll get the money for that. But the the initial budget had said 15,000. Now if you're dropping it to right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right right should the
revenues drop the revenues drop that that same it should be a one to one relationship in my math might I think the problem is well I think the problem with that question is that it's part of that it's part of that
two million and what other assumptions are in there and so it's all kind of that whole two million is kind of fuzzy math in a because it's all kind of guessing what's going to come out. We like to see it broken down what's breaking down does help a lot.
Yeah. And and it's more transparent as far as I'm concerned. So now the office supplies went up to $4,000. Um that was for the copier. So they put a copier in there. I know. But is the is the
printing in the 12,000 part of the 4,000 what? Um, the printer I believe is the big Dside what they call a Dside sheet for Oh, for the drawings. For the drawings. Yeah, you have to have a huge big printer for that. Right. I I I've seen
that down. So, yeah. So, that the copier would be different than the printer printing those. Was that a new copier there that they were getting? So they got $16,000 for printer and a copier.
Y Okay. Copier and the and the permit because that's Oh, permit link is in there, too. Is is part of the 12,000? Yeah. Yeah. See, it would be nice if we had a breakdown. So, you want like a breakdown of
accounts receivable separated kind of. Well, I mean, not every single five cents, but but but the Yeah. Yeah, it'd be nice to know what's coming in. Yeah, it's at least for the bigger at least
for the bigger big items. Fine. Yes. Okay. We'll we'll talk on the on the BBA again. So, when's when's the auditors coming to do the audit? They they are done. We are in the process of writing the audit reports. So we should
be getting them usually by June 1st we get the you get the audit report. Well yeah we get the audit report um beginning to midday and then June 1st we usually have the
when we see it we get it yeah. Okay. So, so you would know pretty much when they do like an out brief what they if they found any discrepancies. Discrepancies. Yeah. Anything that need to come up with
additional cash? Um, yeah. They I mean the first time the first one that this company did, they found a couple that we had forgotten about. There was some money in there that we could use. So, that would be nice. Yeah. So, you know, well, how many times can I do that? Exactly. That's not
something they can do all the time, but you know, it was just it was the first company was in and company hadn't had it. So, I thought it was Yeah, that's that is good. So, are we going to keep going or we going to call it a night?
Call it a night. I will leave it to you know what? Let's get to the end of the building instructor. Oh, the building. the building of the line because that's going to take us to the end of um public safety.
Oh, that's a nice place to start. Yeah, it's a it's a big section on the black. Okay. And it's you have gas inspector. Oh, yeah. Inspector. Oh, those inspector you went through they haven't changed.
They're all doing sipons. Yeah. And that all was the same. She's the same. And they did take some of their professional and technical and drop them in other supplies from last year. Yep. To try to help with, you know, get
it get it down to that 625 um sealer and weight and measures. They just went away. Um yeah. Now, what happened with that personel? Um it used to be you I don't know if you remember I
think it was Eric. you'd see his name on but I believe the state does it for us. The state has record but they supplies in there because we're still going to need towns and labels and all that.
So it's a tiny tiny budget now compared to what I have. That's a good thing. inspector pretty much the same and again it you know it's stipens based on the number of permits and how many how much
reduced the professional and technical services a bit then you have the animal inspector oh Sam was the one who had the book anything about that? Um, no, not yet.
It's kind of like, um, I believe there was conversations going to be with Pepper and see who they have to do it. I I did some reading on what the animals inspector requirements are. Um, it's interesting if you're into
understanding rabies because if there's a rabies incident, you have to capture the animal and then send send it for Wouldn't the animal control person do that? Um, no, that's the animal inspector. Animal control
animal control. Animal control is um Yeah. in which we so when I call the animal person which I've done on occasion am I I'm calling the police whatever animal control that's animal control that's animal control not the
animal inspector is is somebody that goes out and visits the barns and the animals to make sure but the animal control is the one that does the rabies if you get bit I think he said the animals oh if it's if it's one of your farming
animals oh if it's one of Oh, this is farm animals as opposed to the pets. Yeah. And there's supposed to be counts at the lost dogs and me dogs. Right. Right. as well as horses running around the I called the animal control person for a
bird that couldn't fly and they came lady came and kind of picked it up and took it wherever until it could take it somewhere till it [Music]
um got took it about this cat. The reduction there is they took services which is if they [Music] need she was on his way out that
big right yes we do on the brick and it gets us parking into public safety at 147 so we have to go through the rest And then we have to make our recommendations for the Yes.
But not not for a not when we meet again. What? She's just trying to take a look. I'm tired. Okay. Why are we tired? Um, it's going to be a long day on Monday and then the that's a voting day.
That's a voting day. Select men are going to meet on the 29th. Um, should we do let's meet after that? The 30th or the May 1st. I can't do May 1st. Okay, let's do the 30th.
The 30th. The day is Wednesday. be Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday the 30th. I couldn't be here at 6:30. I just wouldn't be here at 6 o' Do you want us to start without you or
do you really need Do you want to be here for Well, I have to do the Oh, the notes. She has to do the notes. So, should we move it to 6:30 then? Can you do 6:30 and we can start at 6:30 then? Maybe I
won't just rush that was 6:30. Okay. 6:30. I will. That's good. 6:30. You going to be okay with that date? That'll be more interesting. Excuse me. It'll be more interesting after
after the vote because we'll have more information. We'll know if if the override passed or not. Could help. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we help like 100%. It doesn't help. It's fun to go on vacation.
Just to know one way or another. Yeah. Well, I don't see how I know that I knew there was some places that we should on the calendar. Thank you. Okay, then at this point I would
entertain a motion to I move that we a second. Okay, we'll give say the second. Yes. And what time was we? 9:05. 9:05. Thank you. Okay, we got a motion to
second vote on this. Mary Jan Church, yes. Walker, yes. Sam Grant, yes. Yes. Hey, Carol, how she is. Thank you, Don.