Excuse me. Uh, has the meeting started yet? You're still on mute. By the way, I forgot to look at that. Thank you. We did call the meeting to order at 7:33. It's almost a rhetorical question now
because we are out of voices that are are paradable. Um but the you know uh uh there is we had some sort of offhand con conversation
between my wife and myself about maybe you know uh reaching out to the um senior center for a very heavily discounted rate um to you know to you know because it would be a discounted rate because it be dual purpose one we
want to teach them something and two I need to practice Right. Okay. But but perhaps it could be dealt with whereas you didn't vote on that particular item because I don't know. Yeah. But the point is that we're not they're not
connected terribly well. In other words, because we don't know what that is in, you know, until the future and I don't know what the part I mean, we got, like I said, you know, just for an example, um, we got the, you know, 300th anniversary coming up in a few years. Um
I we won't be riding in the parade but we have done um you know the 350ths of Grten in 2005. It only pertains challenging I know but no but I'm just saying I you
know she was a gr res. Let me address how we handle it because many members of this board are also election workers. Uh-huh. Um, spouses are election workers. We
file um a conflict of interest form. We've we've all done it. And that's how I'd suggest you you'd handle this too is when that potential for a conflict comes up. We fill out the form and it is submitted to our pointer which
is John Barrett for approvals that he doesn't see it's a complic or if he does then we are saying but if you hadn't contracted with the library when we approved their budget in the early part of the spring that's
no it's still it you you could still um file the contracts just so that people are aware you're being paid by the town that you voted aud the library. Are you paid by the library or are you
paid by the um the library trust fun? Not the trust. From my point of view, I don't know the difference or the friends of the friends of the library print the library. The other one they have that big account that's over a million. Oh, the endowment.
The endowment. The endowment. Thank you. Actually, I do not remember. the last time I did and I'm not certain it would ever happen again. It's hard to get to get the same library whether whichever town it is where one I live in or not.
Um you know not to invite me back. That's the end because they will they go out for somebody else and doing something else. They so it's going to depend on the circumstances but the the best way to cover it is is that conflict. If it's a
town office, we'll talk about it if I asked. But I'm not going to, you know, my wife keeps saying we can't do this, we can't do that because it's a conflict of interest. I'm saying yes, we can. And it depends on I have two conflicts of interest every year. My daughter works
works for Middle Sex Regional School. I'm not voting on her ways, right? So, but in order they do it every year though, but you can still vote for other things in the as far as the school is concerned. It's the overall budget for the school that we vote. We don't vote. Yeah. No, they do. Right.
That's the the the all we do is yes or no. Right. But it is can you cut it down? Can you pick something out of this? We don't tell them what to do as I remember. Right. But that's the idea is there is a potential to look like it's a conflict if if the person has a relative working
there. No. So kind of so that that's Yeah. Again, that's a matter of distance. Okay. Okay. So, that was um um the training the the training. Um and then I just
wanted to to see we we did hit the reply and we replied um to the state and filed it with the state for the open meeting. I just wanted to make sure that there was closure. We reviewed it last week what the response was. was updated with the date and submitted so that we
completed it. Um, so does is that the end of it or will the state send back something? Um, the state sends it to the submitter and the submitter has 30 days to review it if they don't feel it was adequate
and and then deal then they so it's the attorney general's office that's working it. So, Um, and the dates were in the email, but I don't recall the top my head. I'll get you those dates. Um,
um, any anything else? Any on the meeting open meeting law violation? No handout, but I'll see if there is the public presentation. that was done. But again, I think we we addressed it in here that
we are all responsible for following the meeting law. Um there is a piece that I have to follow up with in in the meeting. I learned that we're supposed to sign and agree that we receive the vi the violation document and the a copy of
the open meeting law. So, um I haven't seen a form yet that needs to be autographed by all of us, but um just wanted to make sure that that was something I learned in the meeting that there's definitely a form that says you you received a copy of the open meeting
law violation form and that you received a copy of the open meeting law um um which was handed out. Now, we had to take the test, right? And we had to and we had to take the test. So it's kind of you know so this
I was a little disappointed that when we took this that the open meeting law wasn't covered as part of our so we didn't have to take the test. I was kind of hoping that you know whereas he went into almost identical wording some of the things that
yeah they I think there was clarification. Yeah, he clarified a few things on it and and there were questions and answers at the end. So it a little more interactive than just taking taking
action. Okay. Um, in the meeting minutes, everybody got on. Yeah. Last week. Um, so these
we are so there is not a copy of all of the minutes that were just handed out. Um, did everybody read them or do do we want to copy these and um
read them read them here to make sure there's no changes required. I look through them. I'll happy to accept them as they are. Make a motion. No, I was making a discussion. Oh, okay.
I can make a motion. The one that meeting that I was at and it was fine. Good job. I'm happy with them, Carol. Okay. Yes. From what I've read, I'll make a motion that we accept the minutes as presented.
I'll second it. Do we have to have the dates? Um, I have all the dates. You have all the dates. So, the motion the motion will be um amended to include all the dates that we're accepting. Excellent. Which Carol? And I have the date so I
can I can just put all the dates in there in the motion to accept the minutes. Okay. As presented. Yeah. And I'll just include all the dates.
Yeah. I didn't have it changed any but uh I did realize after reading them that uh I need to update some information. So, it's kind of like I'll go over that. Um, as as we're discussing last last
week in our meeting and it's in the minutes, I discussed clear gov as being the software package. Mhm. That is historical information. That's what we went with several years ago. Okay. Kind of like and I just want to make
sure that we're clear. I'm not saying we're going with clear gov and we we haven't recommended it. Um there are about six or seven um budget software packages out there. So as part of this
look forward I think we should investigate them all. Um including there is one that is part of the betar however you want it. It's b it's our accounting software package and it has a
module for budgeting. So here you have an integrated module right with your accounting system that can take things and work with your package. We definitely need to look at that one. Yes, because that one might make a lot of sense to again I don't know if we're in
looking at updating that software, staying with the software or moving. But it it seems like a nice a nice fit to be integrated right into the accounting software you use. Do they already have that part of the I would have to look at the software
license package. Okay. Um if they did, I would expect we were using it, but maybe people didn't know it was available and which is a possibility. So that that's why I I I mention it just to make sure
there's there's clarity among everybody that I'm not saying clear is the way to go. That you made that. I don't think that I thought I I thought It was the border select people were
looking at click go and that we just had like questions or something. I I never got the impression question. I didn't know that. No, it was just historical. That's what we you we tried to start using. All I can say is for the little I used
it, it's just way deep in history. So I don't remember everything. But what I did leave was when I last looked at it when it was still an impossib is I left a bad taste in my mouth. How do you get here from there type of thing
and you know then the um you know as far as the budgeting is concerned that format is nice. Mhm. Yeah. All you need to change on this piece of paper is last year is two years ago what you had
last year what you had. Yeah. What we're suggesting you do this year, fill in the blank for what you want and then it goes back into this and in fact if it's a fill in the blank on the computer, right? Y for them to have exact access to their
part, right? Then you automatically get the percentage change, right? Yep. Yep. So So that that would be the piece and that that's what I think we should and it's readable. And I apologize. Response is large enough to read this time.
Yeah. So with that, it's kind of like um I just mentioned it. We we had a motion and I don't did we have a second to We did have a second. Okay. Are you second? Um any additional comments after I
none being heard. Um, we can do a voice vote to approve the minutes from March 25th and through August 29th. 26. August 26th. All in favor? I.
All opposed? Unanimous. We have accepted the and then I'll just send them to the court. send them to the court and we'll get them posted and they'll be posted on the website till they're
available for everyone. Okay, that's two uh 2.2 2.3 update on the trash program. Um I did not get updates on tonnage or the bag
receipts as of yet. Um, but as far as the stickers, there over 2100 people signed up. What did we have? 1,800. We had 1,800. Just over 1,800 two weeks ago. Yeah. But when I say 1,800, wasn't that also the That was the target level that they were
trying to get to. So, we had 2100. So, we're definitely on the way. That was the number I I called into the board of health meeting earlier to get that update. It's kind of like so 2100. And again, the program is open, so
people can continue to sign up. Um, they did mention that this there's been a few hiccups and problems and kind of like they can address them and and try to make it um so that it's a lot easier for people to, you know, to um
we have to give people time to get used to it. Exactly. I think it could be very successful in the in the hallway. It's kind of like, you know, people say they had their stickers out, but the hollers maybe maybe didn't see them and drove by. So, Oh,
yeah. At the board of selectment meeting last week, one of the selectmen brought up the fact that she was concerned that the trash program wasn't going to work out. Mhm. And it was kind of a doom and gloom.
Yeah. Comment. Um, how realistic is that? Is that is that a projection that she's done by herself and figured it out or is that something that we have hard facts on that what's the story on that because that was a pretty devastating statement? I thought
um the board of selectment is going to continue to work with the board of health and we're sort of we have the interest in it too. Um because when we put the program together there was $160,000 of free cash or stabilization fund that
was moved in. So that's that's a piece of where we are. We are It started September 1st. This is September 9th. Hard to say right now whether it's going to be a success or not nine days in.
Well, but that was brought up at the board meeting, right? It's kind of like So I don't know that there would be they didn't have enough information to make that statement. Is that what we are assuming? We are nine days into it. I wouldn't make an assumption like that.
We put it that way. I know. But they did put it up. Well, that's my point. I I just got the feeling that it was kind of a condemnation of the
of the program to say that it's not, you know, to say I need to see the numbers because I don't think it's going to work. Right. And and we need to we we have, you know, gave us the first update. we had the July numbers. Um it was a pretty significant number of bags that were
purchased in the July time frame. So if you say that they've already exceeded their certificate sales, correct? They they have more participants than Yes. It's kind of like now it gets into the tonnage and the sale of the purple bag.
What were the July numbers uh for tonnage? We didn't have have it yet. What about bag? Did they have the bag sales? The bag sales we forwarded last week was it 2400 to 34,000 34,000
for the month of July or to the month of July. So again, bags um in in bag sales again. Oh, $34,000 in bag sales. Correct. It's kind of like So we have to the idea is to continue to watch that. Again,
that was a July number where we had people they um we were going to pull pull the plug um at the end of June. So there weren't bags available in in much of June. So there wasn't a lot of bags out. And that sale of those bags is a
little bit of catch-up because we were still letting the residents use purple bags. They weren't we weren't part of the program yet. So everybody was buying their bags and putting trash out while they weren't part they weren't into the program yet. So how are we going to know? Let's just
take six months. How are we going to know? Because I think that we have an obligation to the town to keep our eye on this, right? um to give good news or bad news. Correct. It's kind of like and I think that's what the board of selection was
looking at is how if the contract how can we get out of the contract if it looks like we're not hitting numbers. So what's hitting numbers mean? What what's the hit? The the hit is to look at the targets, look at the look at the sales and then
watch the bag sales, the revenues for the bag sales and the tonnage. how much is coming coming in on a monthly basis and how much is are we paying out based on the tonnage and so do we have um the break even numbers so that we know what we're looking at because I mean we're looking
at numbers you tell me 34,000 per month is that good I don't know well the the numbers that health I'm just going in my memory of I um the board of health were talked about um two bags a month per household that
signs up for that. So that and that's that's the piece that's that was their target and that will keep the enterprise going and it won't fold in a year in January, right? But again,
FY26 is the data gathering. Next year it may mean that the um sicker is $200. it kind of like so we don't we don't know what the total costs are on the tonnage yet. We don't know the continued revenue for the bags. So
it it is an ongoing and that's why we want to watch it. Um so what we do know is that we've gotten 210,000 from sticker sales at this point. And I'm going to say at least because there's some two and three family that
have paid a little more than the 125. They're paying $2 and $300 for multif family. But then there are also some that are not paying anything based on need, right? Or the TEO Teo is providing I think TEO is TEO buys the sticker. Oh,
okay. So, so the town still gets that. So, if there's 2100 stickers issued, then 210,000 has been brought into the fund, correct? Yeah. Okay. And then how does that enterprise work? I mean, so this 210 plus the 34. So now
we're talking 344, that money goes to pay Shaws exclusively or right. Is Carla being paid out of that? Is there may be if if there is time that she specifically sends spends on it
separate, there may be some of that. The the money for the stickers comes out of there. Um they they do have a list of the of the items that are being paid for. So we'll have we'll have like an accounting so to speak. Yeah. We're going to receive it monthly.
Um I'll request it. Yeah. And again health is watching it on on a regular basis on the meeting. Well, I know they still responsibility to look at it. Yeah. And and I think that if it's working, we should be letting the town
know it's working rather than scaring the daylights out of them by saying we might and and that might be something um we put on the board of health. So you're number 21 to
210,000. A little short is it? I paid a buck 25. Oh, okay. I just assumed 100. Was it a I don't remember even though 125 multifamilies are getting Yeah. No, no, no. 100. If it's 12 No, then then I was short.
I think it was 225. 125 what I paid. Okay. Next year they offered me old folks discount and I said no thank you. Um it's a little I can do for you even if it's only a percent. Right. They did say a veterans desk out and then I took that one but I may give it
back because I have no problem with a button on a quarter plus you know we don't know. We have to wait and see. You have to have a starting point. This is the starting point September 1st. Where does our 160 go? The 160 that we took out the
stabilization went into the enterprise fund. So that just started the enterprise and then we added the two sick but that was to pay for July and August more or less right until the sticker of money. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. So so the balance was 160 to open the account and we and we Yes. And then and then we added 250,000 for the stickers and the 34 for the bags to date.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then they're outgoing. We'll see what the August deposit is. And then we got to know. Yeah. So, we need to know what the pickup cost is and then what the tonnage is. Correct. And Don's going to get those for us for next month. Right. Because I'm going to be a sticker this year.
I'll alert everybody on incoming money. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the things we didn't do last year. But that money will stay in the I understand that. Yeah, I understand. Well, but but again like revolving funds, we need to revolving fund. No, no, no.
I said like like a revolving fund. So be when they send in the report, we need to know what their expenses are on a monthly basis and what their income is on a monthly basis. I'm not saying the board of health can't do it. I just think we have to be the watch.
We should Well, no, that we should be informed, right? Well, they should send us their monthly report because they must be putting together an income and expense statement. So, we can we can get there. Right. Right now, it's all we it's just been the spreadsheet with with entries
in it. We can start talking about how to Well, let's give it a positive spin. That's what I think. I think I I think overall the fact that we're about 300 over uh 300 we have 754,000
plus or minus. Mhm. You're over the 1,800. So that's a positive. So that means that many more people are going to be buying purple bags than they anticipated. So right, of course that also means the tonnage will go up as well, right?
So tonnage is the key here. Yeah, the the tonnage can be key, but if if you do it based on your bag price, it's kind of like and and again, the idea is it maybe might, you know, they they put it out there m multiple years down the road, do away with the bags and
just do it with include the recycling part also um or just the bags. does what it is. It is also the tonnage includes the recycling two columns, one for bags, one for one for recycling. Trash versus recycling.
There's a different There's a different rate for each. Okay. But as far as this money coming in, it all come both of those two come out of the same pocket. They do. So we should so so we should ask for
the the the basically we know the starting balance should have been 160,000 and then the July and August numbers for stickers purchased the July and August numbers for bag sales and then the July and August numbers for
tonnage and and the and I assume there's a the flat fee they pay to Shaws every month or is that yearly thing. Um, it it it is flat fee plus plus plus, right? But I'm saying is the flat fee paid on a per month basis or do they pay it like per month?
Once a quarter per months. So I mean we we should get all those numbers for July and August. So the cost dollars in tonnage for both recycling and rate and trash and the uh right 12th of the given fee
should all be in in every month. It should grow, but we should get that money. We We should see that. Yes. It's kind of like But remember July and August doesn't count, right, for your tonnage because the whole town was still involved in the program,
right? But those numbers are still use those numbers can still be useful. They they can be. We can look at what the drop off was when we dropped,000. When we went to the stickers. Yeah. When we went to the stickers because there may not be much drop off. Maybe there were 2100 people buying bags and they just continued in. Mhm. You know, we don't know.
Right. Now, can I segue just a little tiny bit? I don't want to go outside to talk. I know. Thank you. Yeah. But, um, we're on an enterprise fund. Yes. So, we're on trash, but can I segue over to the water department enterprise fund?
Because it's enterprise. It's sort of the same thing. I I'll put it on the agenda for next month. Um, next week, two weeks from now. Yeah. Could you do that? Because I think that if we're going to look at one enterprise fund, I think we should have our eye on another one.
Reason I say that is I don't know. We we don't control that. But what our That's not where I'm But I understand we don't control it, but it's part of what residents pay a fee for if it's involved. Not all residents No, I know that. I know that. But
not all residents are getting trash either. Well, that that's a choice. All residents can have trash if they sign up and pay for but all res water because water doesn't run by their house.
All right. We're not going to No, no. I I I think it's a good idea. It's kind of like it's nice to keep keep, you know, we should keep a breast of what's going on, right? It's kind of like because I think we had a little bit of a surprise when
we got to budget season last year with the amount of money. Um, everybody thought it was about 100,000 lower than than we actually settled that for the cross charges. It came to about 444,000 I think. Well, there were other issues
too that I think are unsettling, but it um yeah, we'll put it on and we can ask um well, yeah, we can ask the water commissioners to come in. Okay, good. That would be a good idea. It's kind of like and I'm pointing to
I know because she's there. I just in case anybody watches and wonders why my hand is going that direction. I know. dealing with because we have a very active president. That's what he had in mind. Um so we will we'll continue to work.
I'll I'll see the other the other pieces. We have raw data. Um and so getting through it, I did some things with it and I put it into what I call a pivot table which I can generate charts from. So we can see revenue by month a
lot easier than just a spreadsheet. Can I nickel and dime this for a minute? You can try. You can try. Because it is the nickels and dimes that I'm concerned about. Yeah. Or in this case, the $5 and the $25. Mhm. Um
it took them a reasonable period of time to get from the um health department here on the first floor to my checking account for the $125.
But it take well over a month to get the first check this year from um the um land disposal area. Recycling center. Recycling center. Yeah. Um they're still sitting on a $50 bill.
The other this past Saturday, they got another $25 check. And besides the fact that it's a real pain in the neck to carry it forward month after month, right? What is the cash flow? What's it take so long for my money not to get in the town
bank? I don't care what the town is making in interest. If it's zero interest or two 5% interest or you should be cashing your check, that check should go through. And then if that's not if that's taking so long, what if I'd given them a $25 bill
or 20 and a five. Um I print the 25. Okay. So wait, that's probably a little that's that's the but that also is what they're doing with the money. Yeah. So we'll we'll revisit that
somewhere. Um, if it's not Well, I think to Sam's point is if we're paying for the stickers or when they get the payment for the bags, how long is it taking for it to get into the bank? Yeah. Right. A week. Well,
we used to have to we were encouraged to make weekly deposits, right? And and that that was something that the auditors Massachusetts doesn't have a rule on that. Nothing. No, it it's kind of like so so the these
are the pieces the auditors have. It's kind of like So we're going a little little straight. Um Yeah, but not really because this is bug trash. It Well, it it's one part of the whole trash. It's one part of the whole trash piece.
It's kind of like um so I think I I didn't mine I paid check online. So, it's kind of like you could you could go to a link and you could pay it online and it was taken out of my checking account. Well, within a day. It's kind of like So, that
that's one payment method. The other is we're paying in person somewhere. Yeah. And and getting it. So, those those are the pieces that the auditor said we need or the finance people need to put checks
and balances in. what is the turnaround and and from receipt and making sure um you know when when it's when you hand over the money where's where's the receipt we don't do receipts you just hand over a check right it's kind of like so there's there's a
lot of still use uncle Sam Green stuff right it's kind of yeah if my if it takes a month and a half or more for my check to get back so to me what happens to that $20 bill or the the $10 bill.
So, you don't get So, if I went and paid $125 in cash, just say to the I wouldn't get I wouldn't get a receipt. No, no, you got a receipt. Oh, okay. All right. No, we're talking about over there. You don't get a receipt when you drop it off
at the recycling center. Oh, okay. So, they And that's why they Oh, recycling center. Well, yeah, we went from Yeah. And that's why we have to offic that was
right. So that was one of the things that that's an excellent point that you're bringing up and you keep bringing it up and we don't get an answer and I understand your frustration. We got to get an answer to this. Right. So because it's not just trash recycling. It's any cash any
any any department any department that that receives cash any anybody that has fines and payments uh permits. It's kind of like how many how many payment systems do we have within within and how are they coordinated back
and are those accounts audited by the auditor? because we were told in that Mhm. whatever we had that they they don't audit little accounts. They only audit certain ones. So, we've got accounts that are not audited. Right. So, that that's where
Yeah. which is scary. Which is real scary. If there's no receipt, we're gonna given to you. There's no receipt kept by them that they've gotten this paper, whatever kind of paper it is. Yeah. But the only way to do it is online.
Well, you can't do the recycling center online. Um, why not? You can't. No, it's cash. It's cash or check. But if you if you sign in and pay for a propane tank
or for they set something up, a receipt, it says this is what I'm doing. You're saying it could be. Well, that's Yeah, they don't they don't have it, but No, but but that you know, so we're getting Yeah, we're gonna go and I don't get
Is the trash recycling part of the enterprise? No. No, that's recycling center is not part of the enterprise. The curbside pickup is only enterprise curbside. So curb curbside is is enterprise revolving. Yeah, probably have. So we should put
the recycling on the agenda at some point so we can tackle this. A number one recycling or that's that's part of the revolving accounts. So how do we audit revolving accounts? We're going to have to figure that out.
And number one and then all of the other the fees and and things that are that has a revolving account. We have that list of like nine things, right? It was 11 I think. 11. Yeah. It's kind of like um so so yes, we
we have you know it's kind of like there is there is those. So we'll put that on a future. So what? Yeah. Any any So we're going to take care of these things. Going to find your money.
Don't find the one you lost years ago. don't know about a mission. Okay. So, we talked about trash and we went a little but not to the fire be within a little box.
We have not we have not taken votes on it. We decided that we had a conversation. We want it. We now want to put it as an agenda item in the future and talk specifically about that. Exactly. in the future. Um
and then um so next is 2.4 the budget process review. Um and I put the FY25 BBA incumbrance. I just put it on here and I I did a very short I took the the
Excel spreadsheet um from the big list of incumbrances and brought in. So the second page here is just the board of health um FY25 incumbences. Okay. So it's not this is not this is just one
this is just this is just one set. If we look at that Excel spreadsheet there's there's actually two segments to it. The top segment is the town funds and the second is the water enterprise. So the water water enter
water water expenses. Yes. Um, this one. Um, no, it's kind of like it's the one Carol has. Do we want to do we want me to call up? I I did just the Maybe put it up on the screen.
Let's copy that. Yeah, it's two-sided. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll [Music] do that. See if I can. So, what is this one? What's this little one? Okay.
I don't have that little one. Okay. It was Sorry. It's kind of like because you have everything printed out. I didn't give it to you. Oh. Um I guess I didn't see the little thing. So this this little one is just the
board of health from that big one. Jerry, I did. It's the It's right under the agenda. It's a small five five. Oh, there it is. So, so is is this is this saying that
we had 71,000 available for encumbrance from 25 and 68,000 was used. Okay. So, what what what this whole encumbrance Thank you. was
um and we'll take the big and we'll talk about the one line that you have. So at the end of FY25, at the end of June, there was $71,500 in the solid waste. Thank you.
Available in the solid waistline. Available in the solid wasteline as part of that 57 that we looked at. So we we talked about how there was 57, right? Well, this this whole big sheet is bills that were outstanding for FY25.
So, but if we specifically talk about and because we were doing trash, that's why I had Okay. So, you're saying there was Okay. So, this says this is the June bill for the the SH contract is 68,500.
Okay. So, from that it's going to leave $3,000 at the end of FY25, right? In that line, right? So, the 500,000 is now 493,000. If well if we look at the full
incumbrance sheet that was just handed out. Um the front page is not the total. These are all um the first from the top of the line it starts at treasurer and it goes down the last line for the town
um again is treasurer unemployment and then treasurer and then the incumbrances for the town budget is $124,254. So of that 507 there are still outstanding bills for 124.
So that's why it it's it's even you looked at it instead of percent and a half it's less than that. It's even less than that. It's even less than that. So that you know it's kind of like and that's the piece. So these are all the bills that were outstanding at the end of June, the
incumbrances and when we look at the BBA on FY26 again, we'll look at it and see the board of health and we brought that money over into the FY26 so that they can pay it without an impact on FY2. Okay. So that's what the prior year incumbrance lines are in this BVA.
Correct. Yeah. Okay. In this Yes. In that BBA. This this was a report out that um Elizabeth the treasurer put together.
And then yeah so it it has the balance in the account and I just wanted to point out you'll see that the same line is in there a few times. Let me let's look at facilities and under unit
it's so no same that you did for the board of health. They're they're really in here. Elizabeth did it on the big sheet. I just I just filtered it down to say board of health only. I understand it. So So if we do take
facilities like this y so if we look she had what that they're not Oh she added like everything up right. She So if we look Oh, so we can't know the departments. If we well facilities and unit she's also given us the account number. So if
we look at the facilities and started the unitil line what what about here? Yeah. Oh, I see what you're doing. Okay. And then the first unit line Yeah. goes to the account 01-01-121-92
50 5210 and she has an account or an amount of 35,32 and the incumbrance of 128. The next unit to build is the same but she subtracted the 128. So the the balance
of wait a minute. So okay. Yeah. This is really so in instead of grouping them all together and saying I owe Unito eight bills for a total of this. She's done them one at a time and taken them out.
They subtracted each one. So you can see it's the same account that it's coming from but each is incremented but we don't know which we don't know what department of well we do it's facilities and but one it could be the library then it
could be you have highway if you look at highway that has unitil and so that's coming out of out of unit is going to come out of energy so unitil for the facilities comes out of one two three four five six seven eight
No, there's eight bills and it bills. Okay. Eight bills. There's eight bills. Don't you think it'd be easier if we do work? Um, can't we do with these what you did with this? Well, I it's kind of like But that's that's the piece is, you know, there's
incumbrances. It could be town hall. It could be west town. We don't know. Yeah, but we want to know, don't we? I I do. I think we should know this. This is our big mystery. Well, it's not it's not a mystery. We we we put all of all of the
UNIL money comes from the energy line for one account. So, this is just the the remaining unit bills for 20 first school year 2025 are coming out of the energy line in facilities.
So, what's the bottom line that she has there? 8,6728. What's that represent? Is that the is that adding up all of those? Okay, wait. Where are you? Right here. Last fac. No, over here to the to the right.
That is probably a total of all the water. No, all of all of the facilities in Oh, all of them. But that doesn't show just like police. But that doesn't show how much is left. So over
so with the facilities let's just sticking with the facilities the first line says amount available of 36332.56 right and then she subtracts out the encumber in that line to come down to 3695 is that right
and then at the bottom we got 28142.71 so we need to take out 482 to figure out what the final number is left in the facil's budget is that is Okay. All right. Now you really confused me.
We're going to go back. We'll start at the top. Okay. Facilities has an account for water. And so the first three bills are paying towns and water. And so when we look at that, it's 50. The the account number we'll just go is
5230. Y. So the first three bills come down. And right and so after the 472 comes out you have 35,300 right so the so the f so the amount available the first line that's the total budget still left correct
in the water in the water department it no in the facilities water or the facilities facilities line the facilities water okay because it looks like so it looks like so the last fac the last water line is is 35775
and 472 Right. The next line is Shadic Oil, but it looks like they subtracted the 472 to get to 3530255. Okay. Okay. They did not. They did not. They did not. If you look back under the
account number, you'll see that Shadic Oil is coming under 58 5480. Yeah. But wait a minute. But if you water's coming out of that, too. And if you look over No, no, no. But if you pound of water comes out of 5230 for three lines,
right? But what I'm saying is soft. Let's let's do one one bill at a time. One one line one one budget line at a time. Tell us what how much do we have left over in facilities? That's what we want to know.
Is it 26 1421 in one account? Not all of facilities. There are if we look here I have one, two, three, four account four facility account lines listed here with encumber.
Could this be more complicated? No I I because Okay. Because if you take the the 472 and you go down a shic oil that's that's you subract the 472 from the 30 and you
go to that's what it Yes. That's the number. If you add it is it is not if you subtract Yeah. If you subtract the 432 from that 35775 down to the shed oil. I'm sorry. It's kind of like you're
right. It's kind of like so this is all all account all facilities. All facilities. But but they didn't do that for treasurer because there's additional treasurer lines I believe. Okay. Let's not go by lines. Let's go by department. Okay.
On the subtraction here. I mean, you could go nuts trying to do this. Yeah. No, if we had a calculator, we could do it. So, that was Yeah. So, they're they're just paying those bills and subtracting all the way down. Not everywhere.
Darn saying you can't do that at the end of the day. Right. At the end of the day, facilities has $28,142.71 to turn over to free cash. No, you got to subtract the 482 on that line first. Yeah, 482 or the 8672. What's that?
That's a subtotal of how much is encumbered for facilities. So, if you add up all the all the lines, oh, in other words, you would take the 26142 minus the 8,672 and that tells you how much is left over. No,
no, you33. Oh my god. So, yep. This is horrible. This Melissa, how Okay, so let me find our Now, just pretend we're residents. We are.
Not all math wizes. Yeah. We're we're not our math wiz. We're trying to I So what they do is with with the amounts in in the grouping. So all
the expenses there was 38 36,332 in the facilities expenses. Then they subtracted all the individual lines, the three three for water that are going to hit the one the one line. Shadic oil is
going to hit the 5480. Um then we have the UNTO bills and then finally the Comcast bill. Um so let me just relate this to what you did with board of health because I understood the board of health.
So if we take Well, that was just looking at one line in board of health because board of health has three. But no, I know this. I I that I do get. So, I guess what I want to get down to is of the $500,000, how much money is there going to be
after we take out all the incumbrances on this? What's $500,000? The alleged $500. Okay. At the the end of the the day for $500,000 at the we asked for in in July at the end of July, we asked for a FY25 BBA.
When you look at the FY25 BBA at the end, it said 500. The difference between what we spent and what we budgeted was 57,000. Okay. So 507. Okay. Yeah. So that but with all these
incumbrances in here, if we go to the big sheet on the second page, you'll see the subtotal for the incumbrances for the town is 124 and 12 cents. Let me see that on page what?
So when you flip it over this number 124. So that's the incumbrances. So we take that from the 500,000. Correct. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. I'm doing this. Okay. 124
254 382 12 cents. Right. No. No. Again, you know, we we are working it with not the official documents that are submitted to the state. So, it's kind
they're different. They themized documents may be a little different. Yes. It's kind of like So, but we're in the ball. We're we're talking we're in the ballpark. Oh, it's not going to be $300,000, right? It difference. No, it should not be that much difference.
It should be a difference of a of a couple of dollars. Maybe thousand maybe thous maybe maybe thousand maybe we'll we'll see what this we take that then we have let's do that math so gra
and then the second group is just the water department by itself the because those bills are paid from the water enterprise right wait whoa whoa so we still now we have 3,000 383,000 leftish. Okay. Is is
Yeah. And then we have to go to the water. Why are we doing No, that's separate. That's a whole different That's not part of our thing. Enterprise. Okay. So that that piece that we we are looking that piece we're looking at is what?
383,000 plus or minus. So what does that mean? that's get certified for free cash. Once all the final reports are submitted to the state, they will um certify the numbers um as far as the revenue numbers um as far as what the
expenses were and come out. Okay. Question and certify. Does that number include the one-time property sales? No. No. That's that's part of that's part of this. This is all expenses we're looking at. Okay. This is um Oh, so this is an incoming idea, right?
All right. So, again, my question I asked last month, I think that being off $383,000 is a lot. Is it? No. Oh, okay. It's it's it's like one and a half to 2%. Or even less than that.
Or even less than that. Yeah. If if you So, if you're doing an accountant and you're like the a game accountant, you can be off by 1%. Well, no. Basically what you're saying, what we're saying is last year the budget had X,
right? We're supposed to submit budgets to the state where we're not going to go over budget, right? So we always estimate a little bit. So we pass we came in so we pass we we basically came in within 1% of our budget
of our amended budget because I think we did have to amend it last last summer. So, we came we came in within 1% right of our budget. That's actually pretty damn good, I think. Well, I get the percentage thing and I
get it and I understand that 1% is good, but what I'm concerned about is that $383,000, how would that affect the FY26 budget that we fought about all year? if if if that number was more accurate.
Well, I don't I mean, are we doing the same thing again this year? I guess that's my answer. Possibly, but I don't I don't I hope so. You can't you it's it's hard. You can't say how much am I going to
spend on electricity this year? I can't. I could tell you I could budget 10,000, but you don't know what's the rate change going to be. How many times are we gonna have 7:30 meetings where we got to turn the lights on versus not be on?
You can't know that. So, you've got a budget for that, but you can't know exactly what the number There's no way to know what the number is going to be. The amount of air conditioning is taken this summer, right? So, I know where Yeah. I'm on a solar thingy with Unatil,
right? Well, I still budgeted even though I owe them. All right. Because by February, by the end of February, you know, I will owe them right now, they owe me, right? So, okay, I'm just remembering the
arguments and the angst that we went over last year for all those months of going nuts. So, now we're going to have $383,000 certified to free cash hopefully. Yeah. And then we're going to do what with it?
Well, again, the typical things you do with free cash, especially for us because we under budget on snow and ice, is you take a big chunk and you pay snow and ice overages because that's your account. At least half of that 250ish, right? That's the only thing we're allowed to
deficit spend on. No, I understand that. Okay. It's kind of like so that so that becomes a piece. So, yes, there you know, there's some of that. Well, my my personal opinion for the fire chief did not take the 81,000
out and the school committee did not take the 200 200 out. Yeah, we would have there would have been some money. We wouldn't have had to go to reserve fund. Um the 160 for trash. Yeah. No, it Well, that that could have been
um we could have used free cash to to see that instead. Yeah, it's possible. I'm just trying to get like a big picture, not the numbers and I'm not dealing with I'm trying to get that one spending habits or the well but and and that's it. We haven't
necessarily recommended maybe what we should be doing as finance committee is recommending 10% of any free cash goes to stabilization. 20% goes to capital stabilization. It's kind of like recommending would be great, but who's
got to listen to us? Well, it it it the um the the places that we need need it. It's kind of like um and we're going to need it is the capital stabilization. That that money is all gone. We don't have any money in capital stabilization
because we took everything out and funded in the articles. Capital stabilization. Yeah. It's different than right. It's kind of like so there but we don't we as a town and and finance committee we haven't said it would be
good and you talk about and it's on the list best practices. What is best practices to do with your free cash? Yeah, that's a very good question. Right. And and so but DLS has those answers. DLS we'll have them and help because those those
are the places it's not all rainy day fund because we if we look at what capital planning had recommended for purchase in FY26 and FY27 there's FY27 and beyond there's going to be a need
for money in capital stabilization or we're going to have to go out and buy this kind of well and other things will come up this you know things break in and and that that fall into capital stabilization or capital planning. Um but the the other
places we're not putting we we don't put any money. Um I when you have a big we we don't put big repairs in. And the one I heard just the other day, we have a 20 to $30,000 bill coming for the West Townsen reading room to put in a new
septic over there. It's kind of like um Well, they're closing it for the one. They're going to close it for the winter this year. Um, how much revenue does that make every year for us? Not not a lot. Maybe 4,000. Maybe we should look back. Yeah, it's kind of But but that's the
thing. It's kind of like, you know, I mean, there were it's a bill, you know, other grants, other you know, there's there's lots of different things you I know, but is it a priority? If it only brings in 4,000, we have to spend 20 to repair a septic, but you know, it's kind of those those are the those are
the pieces. is kind of like um and and people keep coming with with new requests. So, it's kind of like So, how how does this precache? Well, it one of the places we used to do the free cash is onethird of on an
annual basis onethird of the assessor's bill for the revaluations. It's kind of like and we're going to need money to seed for um elections because of the way the ch the recent changes.
Well, I guess the other question I have is if we had been less than 1% would we have not would they have not have asked for an override because this is Yeah, I would have to go in and look. I think if you look, we probably had
positions that we funded for that weren't filled and so there was money in certain positions. So, we'd have to go back over the each one each each one identify the lines um and and take a look at I don't think um but
we can we can look at it on the on the FY25 BBA and see if we can identify the lines but if it was for people then you know it's kind of like in positions that weren't filled and they're positions you need that you still have to budget for
you still have to budget for them if there are positions that you But if nobody's in them, Yep. how badly do you need them? Well, if if if they're they might have been filled for part of the year and people left for came in,
you know, you budgeted at the beginning of the year and they came in six months in. It's kind of like so there's there are lots of lots of different reasons why we look at the N look at the amounts per line and see, you know, is there anything that we can
we could cut, you know, that um would make sense. It's possible, but you'd have to do a deeper dive, right? Not in this meeting, right? Yeah. Figure that out. So, outside the meeting, but as we get to FY26, it gets to looking at the BVA,
comparing the FY25 BVA and the FY26 BVA to the FY27 budget and see But and and again it when we look at budget it maybe it shouldn't be budget but it should be it it should be budget and expended. So you should have two
lines. So you can look at do we did we over budget year over year and we just continue to overbudget if you had to be but I mean is it a strategy to overbudget? I mean is that is that a strategy? I mean good matter. sort of I
mean I think it's I think it's sort of a state requirement because you can't because they don't want you're not allowed to deficit budget except for snow and ice. Right. Right. So if you didn't So so if I only budgeted
a h 100,000 for something that was really going to cost me 150,000 once I run out of 100,000 now what do you do? The state's not going to let you come back. Yeah. If you know that, I mean, I understand that. That No, I understand that. But somewhere in
150 and you budget for 100, that I mean, that's foolish. That's reckless. Right. Somewhere in the squish room you're talking about some many years ago, when something broke, they had to come to the fin to ask for
our bud money for them. And we kept saying I certainly I know I was very much for it. I need to put money aside for things that are going to break cuz something's going to break
and we have seen much less of these screaming requests for broken elevators if put it that you know. Yes. There was that safety. Yeah. And there is but it doesn't always break. Right. Right. So they I mean if you look
at the line last year we had 50,000 in the reserve fund and we only used about 16. Yeah. Well look at the year before and the year before we used almost every penny of it. 50,000. Yeah. And before and then years gone. So so some of that 380,000 is is our was
was our 40,000 that we only use 16 of Oh. Do we get paid back? No. No. That goes into the free cash. That's part of the free cash. And then you start over again. Then we start over again. And that's why I was still very much concerned about the because it's always,
you know, losing 10,000 in the budget. You really can't lose any money in the budget. I mean, it's a fake number to start with the 40, 50,000, 150,000, whatever you want to call it, it's always fake money because you that's sometimes heavily used, sometimes lightly used, but it's always used for
emergencies, right? And and again, you know, when we look at this year with the tighter budget, we probably should have gone up instead of going down. It's kind of like 26 or 25 26 in 25 gone up. We we probably should should have gone
up. Again, we get back to um best practices. When you cut your budget like we did, more than likely there's going to be more requests for reserve fund transfers. But you we cut it to 40. So we have to be very tight on what we use
reserve fund money for. Yeah. But there are other I don't know facilities or whatever but some of these departments here have an extra builtin padding for breakage a little bit. It it's
not well but it wasn't at all. There wasn't there much. But again, one of one of the other things that we can investigate, could we have a different reserve fund that is there for building repairs? So, have a building repair reserve fund so that when you have a
repair that you didn't plan for in your maintenance and repair line, it goes to that, not not the reserve fund. I think you I think you can as long as there's a piggy bank to fix these things and they break whether it's
a dump truck or you know the building or you know we had 26,000 of fire trucks one year. It's kind of like that um they needed to refurbish and repair at the end of the year and they didn't there wasn't money in the budget. So it's kind of like so that was reserve
fund um and it was approved. So it's kind of there we we we you know again that's you know that's that's going to be about 30 you know that's about 35,000 of this amount 10% of it is is just from the reserve fund
on on that excess like so and and again that number we talked about is doesn't take into account what the revenues are um because when we um when we did the property sales that increased You know that that was above
and beyond what revenues we planned for getting done. When does that money come in or did it come in? It it came in 25 or 26? It came in in 25. So, so the most recent
sales were in May, which means when if everybody paid their bill before, you know, paid for the property that they bought at auction before the end of June, it will be part of their the recap and and the free cash certification that
happens in late fall, late fall, winter, you know, so it's usually mid December to mid January we see the free cash application. Mhm. Okay. So, anyway, there was a lot of
and I was going to say this and and so we did talk a little bit about the 20 26 BBA because Dave pointed out in the 26 BBA you can see the incumbrances for that are in this sheet
highlighted in in the BBA. So, I have questions about the BVA. Uh, so did I. Yes. So, we ready to move over to that one? Yeah, I think we can move to the FY26 BBA just so that we know and again we you know the 25
these items are going to be in the 26 PBA. So there are no salary lines salary lines but they're negative because yes so I didn't think you could def deficit
spend like that number one and Katie because Angie in the town meeting said that like five times right yeah it it's not an improved practice correct but I didn't think it was allowed but I don't I know it's not allowed at the federal government for sure.
Yeah. It's gonna So, so there's two things here. Yeah. If I'm going to pick on Nelson just because he's top on the list. He's top on the list. Yeah. So, yeah, he's over. He's been paid um
now is this just the month of July? Yes. This is the BBA through the end of July. Okay. So, he was paid $10,000 in July. Yeah. So he makes 120. We'll just round numbers.
Yeah. So if his salary is cut to 110 Mhm. then he has to swallow that cut over the remainder of the year,
which is more of a It's a deeper cut for the Yeah. for the remainder. So I I this is yes if I was certifying the budget this year I wouldn't have certified anything.
Well yeah well but that's the piece when we look at the BBA and you start at that line all the other salary lines are the same way. They are they are except can I tell you one thing? Yeah. Town clerk should should have a number in there because that was voted on in an
article. That's right. And it does not happen. Mhm. So, right. But maybe maybe Yeah. It's kind of like the only way they can cut him is to go back to town. Right. Right. Yes. It's kind of like So, um Do they know that?
I Well, somebody should know that. I'm sorry. Okay. So, if you go to the end of the BBA, you'll see that the total in the budget is 22 million. Okay. So, that was my question. What is that? That's
22 million, but you have all these zeros. Correct. So does that 22 million somehow include those zeros even though they're zeros? No. So the budget is higher. The budget is the budget that was voted
at at town meeting on June 28th was higher than that. Yeah. So that amount that's not if you add up all those, it does not equal that. No, it it's kind of like So that's the piece I So so yes.
Um so that's Yeah. Well, okay. What's this other question? When when is when are these salary lines going to be filled in? Okay, hang on. I got my email back today. You got an answer for that?
Um I I sent an email. Um because I said two couple of things I wanted but it kind of like u because we had requests in the last meeting. So um
so we're talking about BVA um because I asked for when are we going to see a FY26 BVA with real numbers because without salaries it's not a real budget yet. It's kind of like and it doesn't match and marry back to, you know, it in
my mind needs to match and marry back to what we approved at town meeting. Exactly. Um with the cuts. It's kind of like wherever those are going to come from. But um the message for this is I don't think we'll have a finalized FY26 budget
until you negotiations are completed. Anticipating early to mid October at the earliest. So how long is this going to go? How long is this allowed to go on? I mean, is there a rule on this or can it just go on until next year?
See, I don't know. I I guess yeah, it it all these budgets should work the same way the federal does because I used to be an HR person for and if I didn't have money in the county line, I couldn't pay the people.
Well, that's that exactly. So h how how are they paying these people with no money in the accounting line? I mean that should be illegal. Must be a nightmare. But it should be illegal. I do not know. I I think because we approved the budget
in with the override um being in there um and pending the override passing that you might. No, we No, but we we voted at town meeting to the line the salary lines that were
listed were voted as budget as long as the override passed. But so, but then it had a negative number, but then there was a negative number, but that was not on any specific line. That was just saying we're going to subtract this much.
We voted on a budget that didn't exist. Exactly. So, that's the question. Is that legal? Well, in my mind, it's illegal. I agree. Totally illegal. We passed a budget that didn't exist. And even Katie got up there and said,
"You can't put that budget into the thing." But that's the piece. It's kind of like they I think they I believe they were trying to save work on the accountant because if they put the numbers in, they weren't saving work on the account. The accountant was they had tried to
tell them they were wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. For example. Yep. Did you see the new one posted? Um I know. Um so what they didn't want to put in a number and then have to readjust all the salary lines because
but now they have negotiations going by the way. Do we know? But now we have no numbers. We're going to know by mid mid mid October at the earliest. At the earliest. Yes. early to Ober and we're talking about a budget that doesn't exist that
we illegally voted on. So, okay, doesn't the tax rate have to be set by December 15th or something to that effect because tax bills have to be allowed to go out finalized
January 1st, right? So, if we don't have a budget by then, then then what happens? Good question, Kelly. We can't send fund away, which means people don't have to pay, correct?
My bank will give it derivative coming in. No, but wait a minute. Does that mean you'll have to pay a higher rate and all once when they finally figure it out if they ever do? Maybe we'll never pay taxes again. Good luck. Good luck on that.
It's What do you think this is? Florida. Oh, yeah. Right. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. It's kind of like I I bring I do listen to the news. They want to do away with real estate tax. Yeah. It's kind of like So, I'm sorry. It's kind of I don't mean it as anything. Just a joke.
In Alabama, you don't have to pay real estate tax. So, most of us at this table would qualify for that. I'll tell you something. Most states in this country, if you're over 65, you get at least a discount. But not Massachusetts, you get a search.
tax and and that's the other piece. Yeah. So, and then the other thing I've seen a mess. So, why are we going to even talk about that? So, this Well, I think I don't know the weekend. I mean, there's certain I looked at certain lines and certain lines are kind
of high, but they made sense because it's the dues lines everybody. Oh, they're all due. They're all due in July. always sign up, you know. So, one thing that concerned me was um yeah, there's two. Yeah, two or three
for the board of selectment of the select board. They haven't changed that yet, but um they have 1250 set aside for office supplies. They've already spent 411. Yeah, they spent 25% of their Yeah. in a month. And again, that's the thing that we have
to watch for this this year. Um, and is that you know I'm not saying they're buying things that No, I I mean toner toner and paper are expensive. It's kind of like um but I I don't know if it's paying for the
contract, but we should know what those items are. We we want Yeah. When we see a high item line item like that, we want to know what it is. You know, are we copying more because we're paying whatever the fee per page printing is. It's kind of
like um and that kind of thing. So there's there's a couple of lines that are that are Yeah. like the repair and maintenance the town clerk repair and maintenance. They've used almost they've used more than Yeah. They they've used more than they were
well for the for the for the election and registrations, right? Not for the county clerk, right? So they one of the readers went down. one of the one of the
we had a few more of the police officer that's that's already up there. So if you look at that line you'll see professional services is a little higher already. Um but but again it it's kind of like we did have an election there. So it's kind of like so there's but it looks like the
only other that election was last fiscal year right? That was in June June July wasn't it? Yeah. July 29th. I thought it was June. Was it July? The override. The override meeting. July.
Yeah. July was something else. June was all the town meetings kind of. We didn't have our board in June. Oh, that's right. It was July. Kind of because professional services. How soon you forget?
I know. Yeah. professional services is a little high, but not not really. If there was an election this year, right? And that that's not what the police officer cost even the 946.
They had two and it was about that. I think it was $800 for the two officers. No, 12 or 13. I have the bill and professional services more comes out of that. And that Oh, printing the ballots and all that comes out of that.
Yeah. So I bet that's the balance. I don't think that's the police officer. I bet that hasn't hit yet. Yeah. Okay. No, there there is a bill though for the police. Yeah, there is a bill. Yeah, it hasn't hit. That's only
hazardous duty or something because they got rid of the constable and I know about that. She was $200. The details you have to pay a lump four hours usually is four hours minimum. So eight hours and but usually you have to pay them for
whether they're they're an hour or not and then however many hours later. So So it cost how much? It was 13. It was just about 1300. We have to look at that. Didn't we did the town say get her back some get him back? Get a countless
comfortable back. I know you did, but didn't anybody wouldn't Okay. No, because the the solicitor whatever he is, he Yeah, whatever he is is a good statement there because he said um I don't know something about arresting or something
puts the town in jeopardy or something in jeopardy and yeah, we we'll revisit that because I have a lot of information on that. Good. But um yeah. No, back to the budget that doesn't exist. I
love Carol's definition of that. Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's hard to look at a budget. Um there's just a couple of lines we can look at. When I looked at bottom line and we were at 12% that's high, but that's because the full budget's not listed in there.
But 12% of what? It's it's 12% of what the numbers are of what the numbers are. But the numbers aren't real. So the total down here, it's not reflected. Yes. It's like 12%. It doesn't. The unextended is increased
by at least nearly 1,500 a year. I just think it's a big waste of our time. I It is a waste and and I also think it's kind of insulting to us that we would even have this. I mean, and more importantly, it's insulting to the taxpayer.
That is it's unexcusable. I think it's kind of like I I don't you know it's kind of like the we Yeah, I thought if we didn't approve a budget we had to go back to last year. Yeah, but we approved the budget.
They didn't approve. tried to get them to not approve it at town to put it aside, but we have people said, "Nope, nope, nope. You got to So now we have who voted it and then we had the
override vote and but they ended up with really they voted on a budget. They had no idea what they were voting on." That's right. But it wasn't a real vote because it was more of a I I think it was more of a time limit. We We have to have a budget by July 1st. Yeah, it it was fake and
and it was pushed and it was almost bullied. I guess that's the word I want to use. Threats, intimidation, we're going to have this. No one's going to come to your house. Oh, yeah. On and on. I forgot about that. Yes. Yeah, I remember. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah, there were issues. Yes, I agree. Um, 9:00. Okay. It is. I didn't. Is it really 9:00? It is because we started so late at Oh, I forgot. Yeah, I I don't turn into
a mushroom. A mushroom. A princess, not a mushroom. I guess we don't really need to go too much far about the BBA. I don't think I don't think so, but what can we actually say intelligently about it? Well, um
we can say for for certain things like the um office supplies line, it's kind of like it's at 25%. That has to be watched. It's kind of like if you're at 25% when you're a month in, we're in trouble. Office supplies. Well, well, that's the thing. It's kind
of like Well, the board of selectments 32.92%. Yeah. For office supplies. Yeah. For office supplies in in one month. One month. In one month. So, in three months it and and again, I don't Is that because they cut it so
drastically? might be kind of maybe we should let's ask for can we are we allowed to ask for a reason or are we we can we can go back and say we looked at the BBA we have a question on okay let's do that I hope we didn't take
last year any last year's bills and pay it in July um by mistake I think there might have been a couple but not the board of selection would there be a mistake well if it's last year's bill it shouldn't come out of this year's budget Well, I know. But wouldn't it have been
a mistake or Yeah, it could have been just they got put it through and put it through. Put it, you know, because one question that we can ask. So, yeah, on that first sheet, right, there's a
line there, board of selectment 2021, prior year incumbrance. Yeah. Of $65. But it doesn't but does nothing under the board of selection on this sheet. Yeah. Now, what sheet you want? Um, was that could have been a 28?
Where were you seeing encumbrance on this sheet? Right down here. The second second grouping. Page two. Oh, okay. I missed that. No, page one. Yep, I see it. Page one. Oh,
let me see if I can quickly. But it doesn't show up on this sheet, which is supposedly incumbrances that we had, right? Last year. Should it show up on that other sheet? If there's an outstanding bill, then Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so we have to shift that to this sheet. No, it's this is undated. So, wait a minute. Where's the blue? So, the first sheet there. No, no, no. On this thing, the same thing on accounting.
Well, again, doublesided. They did it properly. If you did it that way, I didn't seeman is a very tough sheet. No, no, the little one. Oh, on the encumbrance sheet. Select board.
Yeah, they don't have that on here. Oh, they 6530. Select board. Comcast 6530. Where second page side? Oh, select board. Okay.
Yeah. Comcast. Okay. So, that's okay. Right. All right. So, the other one was the accounting one. Accounting. No, there was one for accounting. Yeah, which prior year in
accounting c biz. So that's the last payment for the um it was last year. Oh, there it is. Okay. Yeah, there it is. I need to check. If it was last year's incumbent, why is it on this year's BBA?
Um because they moved it in so that they can pay it this year. You can't you can't post anything to FY25 anymore. So you have to say I encumbered it over here and brought that money to pay it out of in FY26.
Okay. Oh, you didn't put the percent. Oh yeah, you did. Okay. 67%. What's 67%. um expenses for the professional services, training, communication reports, wood selection,
supplies, travel, blah blah blah. Oh, that's because the total for the budget doesn't include the salaries, but the salaries are in here. Oh, and have been deducted and have been deducted.
So, that's that's the problem looking at it right now. But good questions. just kind of like if if you look at it after the questions we can understand it. Um it's crazy. What's this accounting business? 11.33%.
Um that would okay that because I'm looking at it and I'm thinking they paid um Elizabeth because Katie was gone I think before July or did she do first two weeks of July? Yes,
she might have done this year. I think she did. Okay. Um, so they but it's kind of like I think part of that might be Katie, part of it might be CBiz and it's kind of like so we have to ask
I think we should know what it should it is right it when we see a number like that and we don't have an accountant right now unless they're because CBIS is a contract to do the accounting services can be be our town accountant but that's
under professional services. It's not under a company. It's not a professional and technical services. Yeah, that's Cbiz. That's CBiz. And what's professional and technical audit? That is um Clark,
Brazilian Clark, the the auditors. Um so every year we we have that full audit. Um, we met with Tony in Oh, the meeting we had the meeting we had where Tony presented the audit results.
That was $35,000. Well, not just that meeting. He has a he has a crew that comes in and I know and spend week two. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like they're in meeting room two and it's kind of like they're getting all these reports. But do they do that in July?
Not normally. Usually. Um, no. it. So, um, they we didn't pay them in July. There's still 35,000 left to go unexpended. Oh, okay. So, so what's the 11,000?
So, the 11 I mean 11.36. The 11.36 is again because the salary for the accountant Oh my god. is not in there yet. So, I can't do this then.
We can't do this. This is like nuts. No, it's kind of like there's there's just certain lines like we saw for the for the office of life. It's kind of like other than that there's not a lot of value in going through this yet. What happens? So, I'm looking at the board of assessors who has who does not
have a large budget, right? They've already spent 49% of it because of the salaries, right? I mean, they've spent very little otherwise. So in another So this is the end of July these numbers.
So right now they're running their whole department in a deficit. Well, it looks it looks that way because it's all salary. If you look at their expenses, they haven't spent anything in their expenses. I know, but it's still going to be a whole it's the whole department is going to be a
deficit. So then where does the money come from to pay for anything? Well, that's true because that's exactly Well, this is why I'm saying how are they allow how are they allowed to pay salaries with no money
allocated they cannot Yeah. Okay. So, we have the bigger question is how how will we operate? Townerating. Oh, really? I didn't Yeah, cl Yeah, he he that's it. They might as
well close up 79%. So you know that that's gone by now. They only had 1,900 left. Yep. And who's this at 40.79? Is this a joke? This is horrible.
Those are the questions we can questions. Yeah. Let's go to the part where we planning. Oh, the planning board. You're over. Oh, I don't know how. Yeah.
Insulting. Insulting. Insulting. It's not even smoking. It's not even smoking yet. There's no smoke. No, it's kind of like where I'm glad my Wow, it makes my budget look really good at home.
I'm doing great. Yeah. 138% over. Yep. What's your budget? Well, I I'm out to 2028 in my detail how much I'm paying for the money coming in.
Well, if you go down to the uh I'm out to about 2050 with my income. So, the fire EMS professional services, they're 150%. Yeah, that was kind of high. I didn't
know what that was. So, it's like, well, how how did they get I mean, they spent a lot of money. Yeah. It's kind of like they they budgeted 6,776 and they spent 10,000 in it
already. Already also with the hazard waste collection. I haven't heard yet. I I'll send an email back to um the person that said they're going to be out. I mean, yeah, we got to get we Yeah, we got to ask the chief about that.
Well, they've already almost spent all of their hazardous waste collection money. I I suspect if they had a hazardous collection day, it's it's one year and it's kind of like Yeah, but the professional services I mean, I hope he doesn't need any more
professional services this year. Yeah, I hope not. And I don't know where he's going to make up, you know, he's going to make he better take a take some money out of his uniform allowances to make up the deficit. Well, they've already spent 82% of their patient care reporting.
Yeah. Well, I safety. Okay. I think that's a one once a year report. Is that a once a year report? Okay. So, that makes And they do it early every year. Okay. So, then that's okay if it's if it's if it's a once a year. But if it's more than once a year
report, then they're in deep trouble. They board of selectment has not adjusted these zero lines that aren't here or the ones that aren't here. How can they bo possibly
spend income that they aren't authorized to spend? In other words, pay for people that should be fired or relieved or reduced. But but they the kind of things that they kept saying it's not your business.
Yeah. Well, it but we the town voted what was it close to a $28 million budget whatever it was. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like um round numbers. It's kind of like so the town voted 28 million but we're not seeing 28
million in the accounting system. Right. Right. But we're still every day or the end of the week or the end of the two week period or the end of the month depending on what period you're on as far as getting your just do. Those
people whoever they are being paid for services based on what they were doing for the town last year. And although their money is no longer in the budget, well, it's it's not officially in the accounting system. It was in the budget
that was passed the time. But how does based on the only based on the override passing? The override did not pass. So therefore that money is not there is not been budgeted for. Only a segment of it the 238,000
that was in the override is not there. Right. So So 238,000 out of $3.5 million of salary. It's kind of like but but the whole but still the whole point is you don't have a funding line that has any money in it,
right? So how are you pay cutting a check? What are you cutting the check? What funding line are you cutting the check against to pay these people? Are they paying them? Are people getting paid? I would say they are because we're seeing the negative lines on the salary.
The negatives lines are in there. But how are they? So what are they building? I mean what what accounting line are they using to pay these people where's the total money coming from by the end of September
we are one quarter into the fiscal year it's showing that that they paid the time administrator $10,000 but there's no budget for it so there's an accounting line there should be an accounting line that when I pay that
$10,000 It goes against that account. Where is this accounting being? So, so what how are they paying these people when there's no money in that accounting? Well, account
as far as the entire budget that was passed by it. It doesn't there is how what did you say 28,000 or it was 258,000? $258,000
not appropriated. We have already spent 25 by the end of this month we'll have spent 25% of that because when I used to have to pay people Yeah. If I I had to pay them against an accounting line and that accounting line was zero,
they either a didn't get paid or b they had I had to go back to that support people and say you need to put money in that account. So I'm saying there's zero money there. How are they getting paid?
I think this is a huge issue that we should ask the that money is going to come out of a line. That money is going to come out a boat a lot of the county. This is not the board of selectman's money. This is the town with the money. This is the residents tax and I think
that they're being very cavalier about this and I I think that that's not good governance. I really don't. The town asked the board of selectmen by not passing the override to fire, remove or reduce
the budget. these in these people making this much money. But it wasn't just it wasn't just salary. No, it was just the overall budget. Whatever. Oh, that was there were a couple of expenses.
Yeah, I think there was a couple, but I don't remember the majority. Well, the majority, I guess. Well, that's what they led us to the week. We couldn't make a budget cuz we hadn't negotiated with the unions, right? Yeah, they couldn't negotiate with the unions because they didn't pass the budget.
So, it's no sense. Doesn't make any sense. None would double by the time you get the budget time and town meeting in May, you have all your your your union stuff done. That's right. Well, that's what DS says that you're
supposed to meet every three months with the school, the FINCOM, and the board of selection to discuss the budget items. It's right. It's like the first thing in the DLS best practices. It's like the first paragraph. And actually, Valerie Selectman brought that up at the last
meeting. And they Here's my favorite line. Recommend it, but we really don't have to do it over and over. Over and over. Yeah. It's like everybody does it. [Music] Okay. Sorry, we
No, we didn't get off topic. No, no, no, no. It's kind of like I thought we were very good. We've done something wrong. It's kind of like it's already very good. Don't say must have done something wrong. No. Okay. Discuss. That's not
Well, I was going to say, do we want to No. Move move it. That's going to be a long discussion for discuss the forms to be a long Yeah. Can we Can I make a motion that we move that to another Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, yeah.
Okay. Thank Thank you. Because we're What's blue book? What's the blue book? Well, I thought you said I thought that was what you Well, I brought the blue book. But I brought the wrong blue book.
Okay. So, the blue book. I know. I can but I did go through it. I did go through it and if you go if you do have your blue book
um it I think the best one was the treasurer treasurer collector treasurer collector that section um I I think she had the most um detailed information when we met. You mean you're talking about when we met?
Yeah. you know that but snow and ice was good too. I mean snow and ice was highway department was good. Yeah. So there was those two. So um that maybe we could use them as a sample or something.
What other detail that we want to see from that? Now the other the other thing I was thinking with that is Kathy needs a blue book. Oh okay. I need refills obviously. I was going to and Kathy, I was going to get you also
the um handbook that we all received the um from M&A. Oh, okay. And that's really good. So, so I Yeah, but I'll let you see my blue book. Yeah, I just brought
I don't want to see. Um okay, so we'll we'll do that for next time. Um, review agenda items from the board of selective meeting for questions. Oh my word, that's another two hours. It It is It's a long meeting. It's kind of like, but I I think it was um I put
that on there because I wasn't specific about it. Um there was a section in the meeting that I haven't been able to break it down to where they talked about surplus items and that was going to be Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Jerry, that's the
surplus number. So, I I printed their agenda so we had a copy of it. Um, and we can we can put it in here. So, it's kind of um Yeah, the the surplus requests. So, are we on that item now?
Do you have an extra copy of that? Oh, yep. I do. So, we're on Are we on 4.5? Um, we are on 4.5. Okay. So the surplus requests that they have there, are those people requesting the surplus equipment they have or they requesting to buy?
They were requesting two surplus equipment they had. Okay. Because they're getting replacements. Okay. So did did the uh did the fire truck come in that we spent the extra 80,000 on? Not that I know of. There's two of them, remember? Not just one.
But there was one one for 80,000 that was supposed to be in in June time frame. Yeah. Extra extra. Right. But is that what did that one arrive? No, I have not heard yet. And I have a public request form in
which I has been in there for probably four to six weeks and I have no response to it about the fire, about that fire and about the tariffs. Mhm. Totally ignored. So now I have to go deal with the state. Yeah.
I mean, what why we're not allowed to know these things is beyond me. It's our money that pays for them. That's right. Sorry, kind request. Okay. Um, it was for a generator and a truck.
Yeah, there was. And the 1994 ambulance. Oh, that's right. Ambulance and the generator. Is that ambulance the olda ambulance or I think so being this 1994 I mean I was on the fire department website the other day I don't think they
have the full listing of their apparatus on D I've had a request in for over two months for that and I went to Katie when she was originally here and she said she'd been asking for it for two years because she couldn't do her um
doesn't the uh what do you call it depreciation right doesn't the workman's office that out every year for the state I haven't seen one I would and for the insurance but that's what she was complaining about because
insurance we used to get a form every year they're not getting it back they let's put this way Katie didn't get it and my public records request was ignored but we have not had it sent it out no I years ago
probably in 2018 18 19 20 21 we used to get a request form from the selection's office to list all our equipment that we have currently have. Haven't seen it in the last few years. There you go. Y so there you go. Figure it out.
Best practices. Y management review is what we need here from DLS big time. Okay. So, do we want to it is there anything more we want to are we looking
to see when they're going to list these equipment or I mean obviously they can't list a fire truck until they get a replacement part. What do you mean as I thought they did on listed for surplus? They only listed an ambulance and the generator.
Oh, you're saying is the fire truck coming that's going to be surplus when the fire truck would be surplus. How do we know this? Does that happen all the time? Well, it said um in capital planning it said to replace this truck. Well, I've been asking that question for
five years. So, I guess I'm going to join the group of asking questions. Yeah. Out there, Jerry. Well, and the same the highway department, the dump truck is going to probably be nothing but scrap that
even though it's MJ. Uh I did do um I did find out down at the water department the other day that they they actually have a list of their five years of what they've surplus. Okay. Yeah.
So what how do they surplus? They surplus it different than the it's not town it's town not town own property so that they surplus it on their on their own apparently. And when you surplus it what is what do you do? Sell it or
Yeah. You list it. You list it on your on your website. It depends on what it is. What it is. It can be just junk and they'll sell it to the scrap. Yeah. Oh, whatever. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um I have voting equipment, the
old voting booths, and so we put it out for the other towns if anybody wants them, whatever. Yeah. No response. So I think Rob ended up bringing them up to MJS. Okay.
Yeah. So on this what is the last one? Yeah. 4.17 is transfer of properties to conservation commission. That's just going from the tax record.
So instead of putting them on tax sale, they go directly to the conservation commission, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yep. It's kind of there was um and that may be some leftover from properties committee last year. I'll take a look at it. Um because last year we went through
every town property and said you know whether whether it was conservation commission or water or you know who whatever department might might be interested in check with them. So this one may have taken them a while to to clean it. So, just a question. Why why
does why does the town get to have first dibs on property that could be sold at a tax sale? Um, I mean, I understand that it's the state
conveys it to the town. Yeah, I understand that. But why doesn't it get put back on the on the tax roles? um because that's the choice of the select board of what to do with the recommendation from the properties
committee. The properties committees recommends these properties should be sold and they will look at the list and determine um whether it's going to be put on or not. So they have rosary app refusal kind of kind of yeah it's kind of like the
properties committee may say sell but the it's only a recommendation to sell it. Once that recommendation has been made and presented to select board the select board at their meetings can determine what to do with the property. So if it's if it's kept by the town
there's no tax revenue being generated. Correct. Um correct. It's kind of like there was no revenue before and there's no revenue again. But if it's, you know, for conservation, sometimes they were small parcels or less than a quarter acre. Um, so we'd have to look at these and see
what the size of these was. Okay. Um, highway sander dump truck. Mhm. Oh, they voted on a useful life of it. That doesn't have anything to do with us, right?
I don't think so. But that that might go to capital planning. Yeah, capital planning because if they voted a useful life on it, then it should be in there and part of the planning for when it's going to get replaced. I think the last trip they had was like
20 years old. It was a 2002 that he was replacing, right? So this year. So you know that's 23 years old. So he he's you know he keep he and his mechanic keep those going but he doesn't have a mechanic anymore.
They got rid of Yeah. I know they were talking he was talking about taking another position if they restructured but um the mechanic they got they got rid of it and we're outsourcing
we're doing mechanical stuff. We have to work this outsourcing stuff too. Well, I'm not a big outsourcing person. I think that's but when when we talk about it I'll bring it up next time. But back on the BBA, it's kind of like one of the
things MIS is already at 30 $35,000 for the first month out of $160,000 contract. sustain it for the year if we continue working with it. Can I go back to one question way back
when you said you wanted to talk about the water department next time? Yeah. Do you have particular questions you want to ask? Well, no, I just want to see the just like the board of health. How much you getting? What are you doing with it? Okay. How's it going over there?
Yeah. So, see Yeah. So, see how Yeah. Okay. So, we'll reach out to and then see if we can get an update from Dave. Maybe it's kind of like where where he is on the budget. All right. So, all right. I listened to that capital
strategic solution update on public relationships. That did seem reasonable because it was on call when you needed it. It wasn't like a contract that we're bound to by guardian. It's a as need basis, right? And and I think it
was reasonable too. Somebody was having this was for um public relations issues. You have an incident. Oh, like if something hits the fan, you know, banner Boston Globe Towns and hits the Boston Globe, we got to have a
PR company. But it wasn't a contract that it was like Guardian. It was we're here for you when you need us, right? per right. Okay. So that's what Yeah. So what line will that come out? Will that come out of professional services
out of the board of selectment? I would anticipate that's where they do it. All right. Yeah. And then parks and cemeteries got rid of a vehicle. I think that's all there. Yeah. Oh, the
postage machine was a big deal. I don't think they figured it out. Okay. Um, okay. I'll see. Um, I think we talked about that early on when we had the different departments
come with the postage. Who was buying? What was the Well, yeah, if because the postage machine generally is is paid for in the treasurer collector office and generally everybody else uses it. But um
so should everybody have as far as postage? Was it a new contract and was going to be No, I think it was a contract. the town's office has the postage postage because when we send out the um
the ballots, we get reimburseed for some of that and but when we send out the drop notices in June, we have to pay from our account to the treasur's account. My feeling is why don't they just put it in the treasurer's account to start?
Well, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Now the last thing I have, sorry guys, the renewal of the TASA lease that was discussed at the um so TASA is that recreation is it?
No. No. That's the soccer association and as a Oh, so that's a commit. That's an apartment. It's not an apartment. It's a contract. It's It's a
organization that runs the soccer in town and so we sign a lease with them to use the soccer fields out to pay us. Oh, I see. So that's not recreation. No, not necessarily. Yeah, it's not part of the recreation
department. Like little league. Yeah. Or tabs or whatever. All those other like little Yeah. All those. Yeah. only because my granddaughter plays at all those teams, right? So, okay. So, we don't
My daughter started with them, but then she got blown out with the uh pandemic. Oh. And then when she finally got back to school, she stayed in whatever. She ended up in running.
Now she's doing cross country and I pray for her every day. Running up and down the hills. That's good for you. Yeah. the traffic. That's why I You notice it's less than 50 yard between me and the horse
and less than 10 yard between me and my car. Yeah. Okay. Um then just real quick um the I did get um Melissa sent me an update on the
unclaimed property in Mass by Mass Money. Oh. Oh man. How that work out? Well, they um so far they've been able to get one. It was $587.80. Good. That's great. It's something. That's great. Let me ask find mass
money. Yeah. Where did they find it? Well, they it says town of town. Oh. Oh. You know, like you go on the state website. No, but it says where it came from. Yeah. It Well, yeah. I I don't know which one. Does it tell you where it came from? Um
just curious. It's not necessary if I don't know. Um now, it doesn't say which which one of the which one of them it was. It kind of, but there were four or five. in there and so that you know they if
they do get more it you know it it's kind of like it was it was there and you know might as well get it try see if it's there kind of like well it would be interesting to see where it came from because then you
would know who's not watching the ship okay you know what I mean just I mean it would be interesting to see what then we may or may not get some information from it. Correct. Right. It's always good to Right. Yeah. I mean,
curiosity for me. Yeah. And you're right. Maybe investigative for me. Right. The hole in my bucket is over in West Towns and on the way to New Hampshire.
Yeah. that. So, but that was something we had on the list and I didn't put it here, which is the cash cash flow identifying where where cash cash where there's any other where where there are transactions that generate
revenue, where is it and how's it reported? Yeah, that's probably going to be a whole meeting. It could be. It's kind of like but that's, you know, it um a piece and that's um putting when they were putting together the the finance
team. That would be something that they should really look at because the auditor has pointed it out for three years in a row that we don't have good practices or really maybe to automate. Yeah. Oh, that's another thing I want to bring
up right now about that the Buddhist elect not at this meeting but at the well one of the whatever reason and they said that the DLS the good news is DLS has been here before which I don't think is really good news but
that's okay and they had recommendations and they most of them they can fix and the board said well they're just recommendations anyway. Okay. So, so, so does that set the stage for our having the BLS come in and review best
practices management and audit it? Um, I think they had to follow some of those came in last time. Yeah, pretty sure they did. Yeah, they they did. They can we see that? Um, I don't know if we
I know it was 10 years ago. Oh, it wasn't. Oh, but I'll see if there's anything from that. I was thinking the time um after Jim Park that they came in. Oh, DLS came in then also for audit or for management practices as
well? I'd say management practices. Did they leave recommendations? They did. Could we see both of those reports? I'll ask if there was anything. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wasn't.
You know what? We'll put a refuge request because if you ask and they'll only give you what they want to give you. Yeah. But again, it's kind of like I think you have to go to DLS and get DS provides because um recommendations because I don't know if anybody
they must go to DS. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to say the person that sent the email that said they were going to come in in the fall, it's kind of like I'll reply back to that. And what? So they haven't given us a date yet, right?
No. So at our next meeting, can we talk about some of the concerns we have to address with them or do they come in and do their thing and we don't get to say No, I think we I I think that's something good. It's kind of like we we
have a list of concerns and and ask them to to because coming in and hitting with hitting getting them with a cold before they get here isn't the last thing they do. you wouldn't may not get the answer, but if they're prepared and can investigate it, I think that's
Oh, so you would send a letter to them saying, "Here are some concerns we have." Right. That's a really good idea. Yeah. It's kind of like, you know, it for your consideration to your visit. These are some of our concerns. We should Oh, we can discuss at the next
meeting. The next meeting is kind of like we could make a list. When is our next meeting? The 23rd. It is the 23rd. Next meeting September 23rd. Right at the end right there. Okay.
What time? On them because and I have the Zoom meeting already. So it's nobody's going to check in. Okay. They had it was scheduled. Yeah. Um I mean I
didn't even pay attention because I make a motion to adjoin the meeting. Um are you not ready for that? I think I think we're ready for it. They they lost one $25 check meeting by December 30th. I I
by December 30th I wrote it off. Thank you for the money. I appreciate it. We're journ.