uh welcome everyone today is Tuesday April 8th 2025 it's 6:35 p.m and I'd like to call this meeting to order with the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance of the United States
and to the stands stands under God indivisible liberty and justice for all for all on March 28th 2025 Governor Healey signed into law a bill extending the temporary
provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to June 30th 2027 specifically this extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of public body of the public body physically present at the meeting
location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings the language does not make any substantive changes to open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding the mo remote meetings from March 31st
2025 to June 30th 2027 all right and this meeting is being recorded i think I mentioned that uh I am going to introduce who's here so we have Fincom members Duncan
Law Cindy Brown Christopher Thrasher Hugh Morton and myself Karen Rouse uh absent uh is Gary Carrero Zack Blue Brew and Al Le so we do not have those three members but we do have a
quorum okay so um couple of items on the agenda the first item was a discussion of free cash because that's going to lead into uh the the three articles that we do have to um vote on um do you do
you need me to call put on my screen the free cash or did everyone have a chance to to look through that i think the screen might be helpful okay I can sure do that so give me a second i have it but I'm down to one monitor at the moment so if you could put it on
your Yeah absolutely and then I won't see hands but Cindy always helps out if um Y okay should be coming up if you don't see it okay so uh this is very similar to over
here is the lefth hand side it's uh which was the select board budget so I'm just going to stick to the right which is the finance committee one at this point um so free cash was 3,492 to start um the
uh cemetery expansion in the in the select board in the budget that in the warrant that was approved was 200,000 there's going to be um I have a request on the agenda to change that to 300,000 and we'll talk through that uh on the next one uh well I can mention it here
so you know but that'll be an action item um as when Jim had presented the cemetery expansion um he did mention at a previous meeting that we had that the the the costs to do the expansion was
more than anticipated and so in the initial and they the select board had meant to change it in the warrant and then by when they finalized it they had not run through the change but Jim is going to suggest to the select board um to change that number to
300,000 in the warrant was asking us consider reapproving it which would make it easier from a motion standpoint on town floor um but anyway so the request will be here in front of us to move that number from 200,000 in free cash to
300,000 everything else is the same in the CIPC that we've already gone through uh we have the schools at 400,000 in article 4 article 19 the board of health carrying over the free cash is
10% and then these would be our next three articles that we're going to vote on tonight so I met with Jim and reason we didn't vote on these at the last meeting because I I wasn't certain what Jim's recommendation would be on funding so uh I discussed these with Jim and
felt uh Jim felt that these were good numbers to add to the the uh stabilization accounts if we chose to do that so then that would Oops go ahead what did somebody say something nope oh okay so then that's the free
cash is unallocated is still 132,000 so we could conceivably put more in here or just leave that angle karen just a question of information recash carryover is
349 i take it that does not include 132 unallocated but isn't that really the same thing that is correct so the the the goal the the goal would be to take 10% and leave it and carry it over so this this 132 could get used up and then
but you're right the carryover is going to be the 2349 plus that as of right now exactly okay yes correct thank you for clarifying that christopher has his hand up go ahead Christopher thank you Madam Chair so this this does
kind of uh pick up with the the requested item that I had uh for the next agenda item actually but as far as the one change that I was hoping that would be considered uh on the original select board request or the select board
uh recommendations for uh for free cash it uh the the payoff of the campground was included uh I believe the select board number was somewhere around 100 it was 141791 uh so what I would ask um the the
number that I had based on taking the principal payments and not the interest payments uh for the campground payoff in the the latest version of the uh the detailed department budgets that I got or that that that Jim had given us some
time ago i believe that number was 134,418 again that's not including the interest payments that were already allocated um in in the other line uh line item but I would I would say that
both based on the select board's recommend recommended uh pre-cash allocation as well as the principle of of of you know with the with the 56 or the 5446
split this should not be considered uh a general budget item so I would ask to add in at the very least you know what the the 132 or whatever is remaining as of right now um into free
cash and take general budget we'll get to your um to your your your uh request and then we we'll we're not voting on the free cash at the moment so this is just a a presentation of where we stand based on the budget that was approved
two weeks ago and and where we stand now we'll we're not voting on on the action items until we take up your specific request okay fair enough i just wanted to mention that that sure thing that item gets close or that number gets close nope absolutely so um so that that
that's the first thing I was just a discussion of the free cash to just let everyone know where we're at um so the next item on the agenda is uh a discussion and action request to reconsider uh two two items one is article five
which is the capital improvement planning uh program which was what I was just discussing to move from 200,000 to the 300,000 for the cemetery so that's one piece and then the second piece to reconsider
um uh and I'll let Christopher talk a little more about uh re the reconsideration of article 4 which is the budget um so we'll discuss those and then and then from there we'll finalize our free cash
number so so let's um any questions on the capital improvement um change i would move to to accept the selectman's but number 300,000 did you want to vote did you want to vote on that that part of it karen we
can wait why don't we wait for the motion until we do the the Well that's okay all right so Christopher maybe you can kind of give us a a summary uh what I'm what I'd like
to understand is what's driving your your request for this change of of a budget that we voted on two weeks ago so what is driving my request is based on the fact that the original budget uh request coming from the select board or
at least the free cash recommendations coming from from the select board included the campground payoff in in free cash uh any monies that have been allocated to additional uh to this to pay off this existing uh
item uh in previous years had come from free cash um I just don't think it's appropriate that this that the payoff be in the uh the general budget and if there you know with the continued uh push or or whatever you want to call
it for the the continued adherence to the the form the split formula uh as far as revenues concerned um I I do think it it makes a difference to have that included in the general budget as opposed to uh pre-cash so what I'm what I'm hoping is that we can go by the
select board's recommendation here and actually take this remaining uh what remains in free cash to allocate to the campground payoff and to split the split those funds that are in the general
budget uh right down right down the middle according to the formula so the uh the two it would break down to if you're going by the 7 or the 134,000 and change number you're going by uh it would it
would allocate 72,585 to the uh to the schools and then it would allocate um the the same total actually $1 more to uh to the town line i the two items where I would like to
increase is actually the reserve fund uh and also to the specifically to the selectman's uh budget for the purposes of adding to the salary that's allocated for an assistant headtown administrator uh because I do think
yes sir I thought Mr rasher had rec was recusing himself from things pertaining to the school committee and his budget that would not seem to be the case we're talking about allocating more from the budget to the school committee at this point
you're saying I'm recusing myself for for uh for taking You said would I'm not sure if you're not then you're not but you're not doing what you said you were going to do if you are recusing yourself then I don't think you should be making this this motion so so is it is it Mr mr
morgan is it your uh Well first of all it's not a motion it's just a discussion i can't even make the motion so but you're saying that I'm just asking are you saying that you you would find it necessary for me
not to vote on any of the budget going forward is that it is your decision but I thought you had announced that you thought it inappropriate as a member of the school committee to participate in budgets pertaining to the school committee you have the right
i'm pretty sure that's a that's that's a I'm I'm I'm fairly certain that's a bit of a twisting of what I had what I had specifically said uh with regard to the school budget um in any case the point
I'm making whether it's having anything to do with the school budget or not is that this this 144 or 34 whatever it is thousands is is now included in the general budget uh it does not make sense that it's included in the general budget now when the
select board had previously recommended that it be used or that it come from free cash and in previous years it had come from free cash and not the uh not the general budget karen can I clear can I clear something up i think I'll let you and if you don't I will but okay so
the campground payment I believe the extra the payment that was being included in the free cash payment was to double up to make it the final payment the payments for the for the campground have always come out of the operating
budget it was a non-excluded debt payment that has been absorbed in the budget for the last six or seven years it's been part of the general budget since day one and this year this extra
piece was included to make the final payment so it would be paid off the information that I was given was that this number that's in the general budget represents what would be the final payment if that's if that's incorrect that's different than what I had it may that that could very well be but it's
always come out of the general budget yes whether it's the final payment or we've got one more coming up this could Yeah fiscical year 26 could be the final one whether it's the final one or not is irrelevant but that budget has always
come out of the general budget right do we have any I I'm just curious so was there any what was the reason for taking that number out of the free cash that was recommended by the select board yeah
so let me respond let me reaffirm Cindy so yeah um this this payment is a normal scheduled regular debt payment of which normally is in the operating budget so this it belongs in the operating budget
in its normaly it is a regular debt payment it it may very well be and I believe it is the last payment that it's paid off but it is a regular debt payment and belongs in the operating budget in its normal budgeting
um in the previous year as Cindy had mentioned so there was an element that was in free cash and that was just as Cindy said to double off and pay it off early so a piece was in the operating budget which was the normal one-year payment the extra payment was coming out
of free cash so that's it and it's always been that way so was the for the select board so the town administrator was doing everything he could to open up the budget as much as he could to provide as much dollars to
the school at as as he could and so when he chose to present the budget in that way to pull something that's normally out of the budget and put it into free cash he was trying to open up
the operating budget to provide as much of the 54% to the school but turns out when you do the calculation the way that he did that it changed the formula to 59% so it really wasn't appropriate to
have done what he did and this is why we unwound it when the the second budget got revised when we got uh the diamond information and and that's in part why Jim uh increased local receipts to try
to accommodate what we undid in terms of the budget in terms of the the debt the debt so it doesn't belong in free cash it's a regular payment we did disagree in that case sorry Christopher we you you're breaking
up you We can't hear you very well that's all right yeah I I disagree with the characterization there but uh so be it so I can make a motion on this anyway okay so if no one else wants to fine by me no and then uh I'd like to comment a
little further on your your comments on how you were uh proposing to use the the town side of the difference um I think the reserve was in is at 150,000
in your previous alternative budget you were saying that 150,000 was too high and you wanted it down to 100 but in this budget you're requesting it to go to 180 so I'm a little unclear on what you really think those reserve should be
quite frankly I think that I what I do think should happen is that I I think that some of that money should be used to bump up the uh the salary of an assistant town administrator now that's you know so as far as the uh as far as
the second half of that allocation um the reserve fund was pretty much I I thought anyway would be the one that wouldn't get uh nobody would complain all right so the sec that's fine so that I want to respond to that second piece so um there
at this in this budget there is no assistant town administrator in this budget the town the select board has not discussed an assistant town administrator there is no job description nothing has been discussed
with the personnel board there is no town administrator position so to take the position and add $30,000 in the line okay so the line is in the line is in the last version of what we got from Jim now if it has
changed since the last version we got from Jim i think it's I think it's the line it's the line item and I don't want to play like the office but it's the assistant to the town administrator which is the current position of the person so that what that is the the line that I
have in there which is I think you're right it does say assistant to however it plays but that's uh that is what I was speaking of yes well just to clarify so the that position is retiring and so
um some more dollars were put into the select board's budget so as the select board later on defines how it wants to utilize that position it has dollars to do that so it has there the select board has not discussed it has not
determined it will be a quote assistant town administrator it may be in the long run but it has not been discussed um so the and I confirmed with Jim and he feels that they don't do not need an extra $30,000 to to the to the budget
fair enough anybody else on the any comments um I'll leave it to anyone if someone wants to make a motion to um or there is no motion that needs to be made if if everyone's fine with the budget as approved two weeks ago
I would make a motion if I was able having not been able to vote on the budget I can't make a motion to reconsider but I certainly would would if I was able all right I see no one with a motion so okay so the budget will stand as that is
okay um the second item for a reconsideration and back to Hugh so this is article five the capital improvement planning committee the request to move the cemetery expansion from 200,000 to 300,000 and using free
cash you're muted thank you the the reason for the motion is simply if the select and believe the figure of 300,000 more appropriate we should I think go with that rather than second guessing if there if the money is
lacking we have to come back to it again if the money is more than is needed it'll fall back again at some point so no it can it makes things more convenient and I don't see any right is second motion
second great and I think the part of it too is to try to make it as easy as possible and the new town administrator to have as few motions on the floor as possible I think is is that's the new town moderator town moderator moderator sorry
what did I say town administrator sorry thank you that would be a surprise thank you um so any other discussion on that yes Madam Chair i will just say that it amaz Excuse me Madam Chair yes Madam
Chair i would like to make one comment it amazes me that there's pearl clutch going on when we're talking about potentially giving $75,000 more to the school system and yet throwing another $100,000 into the cemetery expansion is is is not even a question so that tells
me very clearly where this town's priorities are thank Okay thank you Christopher i you know I that's discouraging to hear you know the the this committee has as well as the select board has tried to do as as much
as possible and has allocated free cash to the town to the school to help supplement as much as possible but the town does have other priorities as well that need to be considered and it's disappointing to hear that you you think
that nobody cares um that's really disheartening it it madam chair I will say it's not that I think nobody cares it just I I again the priorities are are elucidated crystal clear day by day and it's uh you know frankly I just uh I
guess I've had enough okay so we have a motion in a second i'll do a roll call cindy cindy Brown i Christopher are you able to vote on this since you weren't part of the original or I'm not sure how that works i'd be
I'd be able to uh vote but I wouldn't be able to uh I couldn't make the motion and I I believe uh yeah I it would still my I guess my my yes vote wouldn't count but I'm voting no anyway so okay Christopher or no great hugh
hugh Morton hi thank you Duncan we had audio trouble with Oh Duncan is raising his hand um I suspect suspect he's mute i think we had audio issues with Duncan um Duncan if you put
your There you go he He keeps raising his hand oh he's saying yes I believe yes if you also have Zach is there he's He's uh I think he's Yes okay thank you Madam Chair i I was incorrect it is it
is actually procedure that there's a motion to reconsider and then the actual motion so I'm not I cannot vote on the motion to reconsider but another motion must uh must be presented after the motion to reconsider oh are you So do we need to do this in two motions a
motion to reconsider and then a motion only if a motion to reconsider pass would you do you have to do anything more and I we halfway through the vote of the motion to reconsider we got you Duncan so let's make sure
we're clear so is the motion first Is there a motion first that we need to say yes we'll reconsider it and then there's a second motion that will determine if it's a yes or no if I may yes please motion to reconsider if the vote is negative to
reconsider that's it if the vote is positive to reconsider then another motion to look at it again would be in order okay if the first vote is no don't go back that's it okay so we're in the motion to reconsider so Christopher this
is the motion that you are not able to do you're saying right okay all right so Cindy said yes hugh said yes no I think Cindy said no do not reconsider but that's up to her to clarify oh sorry no we never voted there was never a second
to reconsider i didn't think there was any any motion to reconsider there may have been a motion but no one seconded it okay then if there's no motion there's no need for anything right we never voted on the on whether or not to reconsider right now we're voting on the
free cash item right i think you're right yeah let's Maybe we should just Are we voting on article five we're voting on article five so let's um maybe we can swipe this clean and start again okay that was my
confusion was article five a a motion to reconsider or was this a correct so we're talking article five which would be the motion to reconsider uh which would then uh move the cemetery expansion from 200,000 to 300,000 so I
guess the question is first do we have a motion to reconsider if someone would like to make that motion and I guess that's my motion in a different dressing to reconsider the item for the cemetery okay is there a
second on that motion and I will second that motion okay any discussion on that before we go into Okay okay all right so Cindy Cindy Brown I and Christopher won't be
able to do that since you weren't there okay hugh Hugh Morton i Duncan Duncan says I Yes okay thank you zack Zack Leu i and Karen Ross i Okay so now we have a motion to reconsider so
this is the first time I've ever done this so this is kind of interesting um all right so now the the motion would be the actual changing the the cemetery expansion number from $200,000 of free cash to $300,000 of
free cash and I made that motion I guess too okay thank you any second on that motion i'll second that motion okay any further discussion on that motion okay all right so I'll go to a roll call
so Cindy Cindy Brown I christopher christopher Thrasher no thank you hugh Morton i thank you duncan poor Duncan what he went through before to say yes and now he has to redo it i
know he said he said yes he just Yes all right he's got an I it's in It's in print it's an I yes zack Zach Labru I and Karen Ross I thank you okay all right so that is the so the the
next uh item on the agenda we have three articles articles 32 which is the stabilization fund article 33 which is the capital stabilization fund in article 34 is the special education so that um in accordance with
the suggested um numbers that we talked about earlier so that the suggestion uh article 32 the stabilization fund that was 350,000 was put in as a placeholder in
the free cash uh amount if someone wants to make a motion for that or some other number whatever someone chose i would mo I would move to approve the number as suggested by the select member thank you any second on
that motion i'll second that motion okay thank you any discussion on that uh Karen I don't know if this is the appropriate time to ask this question could you refresh my memory as to what
happens with free cash um from the time of town meeting to the time the next tax rate is set yep that free cash is available until that period of time so free cash is available until June 30th
oh only until June 30th okay no and then so if it doesn't get appropriated by June 30th then it's kind of frozen and and then it rolls into to the next time it's the free cash is certified which would be December January of that year
okay i knew I knew it had something to do right around tax time okay all right thank you thank you so conceivably whatever gets left right now is next year you have to have a special town meeting before June 30th to use it that I think that would be the only way at
this point you could use it or again more fund more could be put into a stabilization fund so that if you had a special town meeting in the fall say you could potentially pull it from the stabilization account but you can't pull
it from free cash correct okay I just wanted to make sure that I was clear and everyone else was clear what happens to that Yep item that's left okay thank you Sure Uh any other discussion on on article
32 okay so I'll go for a roll call cindy Brown cindy Brown i Christopher christopher Rafter i Thank you hugh hugh Morton i Duncan you're
up he says a I He's right on it now back back hi Karen Rosai thank you all right so the next article is article 33 which is the
capital stabilization fund and um let me refresh my memory of what we put in that that was Madam Chair yes i will move that that I will move the capital
stabilization uh be increased to 300,000 sure thing so the approved the approved uh number would be 300,000 that's my motion sure thing and the just to to make note uh anybody want to second that and then
we can discuss it i'll second it okay just to make note the schedule that we had at 250,000 but at 300,000 there's still enough cash because there was that hangover so that's it still works karen do you recall how much we put into the
capital stabilization fund last year oh no i don't know but um Jim has the in the capital stabilization fund right now there's 482,000 in there okay before this before this correct good that's good okay good
okay any uh we have a any other questions or comments nope okay i'll go for a roll call cindy cindy Brown i Christopher oops you're muted christopher
great thank you Hugh hughart i Duncan he's there yep he's got it he's right on it Zack zach Leu i and Karen Rouse i Thank you okay the
last article is article 34 and that's the special education revenue account um the schedule has a suggested of $175,000 going into that account madam
Chair I'll make a motion to uh put $250,000 to that account how much does that leave in in leftover let's see that leaves let me just give the exact 327 leaves $7,000
leave $7,000 on top of I mean to the uh to the the carryover already in there correct yes uh is that that motion has been seconded not yet i'll second the motion so we can have a discussion about it sure thing in
in in theory I don't have a problem with this in years past we spend free cash down to the penny so I don't I don't have an issue not having um a leftover um and I'm glad that these funds have
been going into uh stabilization accounts that would come in very handy um should we ever be in a in a situation where our free cash is very very low uh and we still need either some capital uh expenses or the
schools are facing uh some unusually high uh tuition costs for um uh for for challenged students so I in theory I I really don't have um uh an issue with this i think that
it's good that we don't have a set formula um that we say every year we're going to put x amount i mean we can put as much as we can and the years we can and some years we won't be able to and we won't so if we can this year kind of
bolster up some of these accounts um I'm fine with that um I don't have an issue with with um making that one um uh substantially larger and adding to it so um I I'm I'm in favor of this i have a
question i I'm not I may be persuaded by Cindy but I thought this is sort of a surge tank that there's reimbursement from the state in this area which lags the expenditure so that the idea was to
catch some of the reimbursement to be held in this fund to smooth things out for years when there unexpected high if that's the case I'm not quite sure why it needs to be bigger but I'm persuaded
by Cindy probably that it's not going anywhere and there are times when it could be necessary but could somebody educate me on the original intent sure go ahead Christopher if you want to do that
yes thank you Madam Chair so the circuit breaker funding that comes in for special education is in in theory supposed to be 75% or 70% of reimburseable costs which is basically
above a threshold i think it's usually around 45,000 or something per student um the problem is it's not an automat it's not automatically appropriated and the actual number that ends up by the time you get through all the budgeting uh on Beacon Hill ends up usually being
much they they usually end up not fully funding it um the other problem is the timing so you're dealing basically with uh the circuit breaker coming in sometimes as much as an entire fiscal year later than what um what the expenditure was actually made because
the problem is when you have outofd district sped uh special education placements specifically that's when a single student can cause or can can cost upwards of I mean at one point we had 70
or 700,000 for one one student and the problem is you can't tell you know if they move into the district in the middle of the year there's nothing you can do so um as far as as what this fund is for it is to uh to alleviate the the
pressure if you will during the the period of time when you get a a student or get new students that you didn't expect or or uh special education assessments you didn't expect uh it it takes care of the uh the the the length
of time between those funds needing to be out needing to be allocated and spent and those funds actually coming in through the circuit breaker thank you that's very helpful because I was analogizing it in my mind to veterans benefits where
we put up the money and then 75% comes back at a later date but that's a pretty sure thing and what you're pointing out is this reimbursement is up to Beacon Hill and get can get tossed around like other things therefore having a bigger
fund against the possibility makes more sense than it would appear on the surface thank you so I will vote i'm not sure you're ready for a vote yet but No I uh I wanted to make a a comment on it too um this this art this this fund is
troublesome for me um conceptually I agree with the concept of the fund to put more dollars into special education and they sit there in case there's a unanticipated need the funds are there
so I 100% support the concept of this fund what I don't support and what I had issues with last year when it was an article that was added to the bylaw what I don't support is
that when funds are taken out of this account it is done by the school committee and the select board only it does not go to town meeting to to expend the funds and the finance committee is not involved at all i don't believe
there's enough checks and balances on using these funds and I think that means potentially a lack of trans transparency so I think there needs to be more checks and balances on these stabilization funds so the other two stabilization
funds that we talked about uh the stabilization fund and the capital stabilization have to go to town meeting in town meeting votes to expend those funds so we put the money in here but in order to take them out town
needing votes to agree to take them out and spend them in X way right this this fund does not have that and so my challenge on this is I had an issue with
the bylaw last year and so I just can't support putting money into an account where I don't think there's sufficient transparency and checks and balances to pull the money out that's my problem with this account i I hate to have to vote no on it but this is I wish the
bylaw was changed and adopted to add those checks and balances in there karen at this point are you talking about the increase or the appropriation as a whole as a negative
so I'm talking putting whether it's $1 or200,000 or 300 so once the money goes in there's no there's no additional um No I I understand what you were saying i just made sure it wasn't Yeah so it's
not it's not 175 versus 250 it's it's any amount going in to have a fund where I don't believe there's sufficient checks and you know check the town meeting does not vote on this does not vote to expend the funds so at a minimum
I think a third body like this finance committee should be involved in this but that's not what the bylaw says and so there's no that that doesn't happen well the town accountant I think also has some fiduciary responsibility in that regard and that it would have to match
the requirements of how the bylaw was set up you know it would have to be for tuition uh for um for the uh a special ed student um that type of thing so I mean I think that there is
additional additional insight other than select board and I mean this in no in the in no personal way am I accusing anybody of doing any wrongdoing and this could be 20 years down the road could a
completely different set of individuals it's not personal at all it's just putting a bylaw in place that allows for those checks and balances and I'm sorry I stepped in front of Zack zach had his hand up first oh go ahead Zach well you were kind of touching upon what my
question was if anyone could kind of remind me you know the verbiage in the bylaw and how it specifies the spending and if it needs to be towards special education and I'm kind of like you know depending on how I vote is like I'm
trying to understand this was voted in last year um I I'm curious exactly how much is currently in there and then if anyone has any idea of when we anticipate to first use this and kind of further is do we see
expenditure out of here on a yearly basis do we see it build it up for like an emergency um I just I'd like to just understand a little bit more if someone can Yep and and great questions too and and it's also not just for special
education that also there's some elements of transportation also that this can be used for um and I just want to be clear too that that this is a state bylaw so the state allows for for the the select board and the school committee only so this wasn't something
that the town just did this is a state bylaw and the state allows this i'm just I'm just shedding my personal opinion i like more transparency and checks and balances than uh which I think is helpful so the state bylaw allows it there's no issue with the bylaw it's
perfectly acceptable um and to answer your other question Zach I think state is about $55,000 right now so we only established the uh it last year and and did some little transfers to put some money in um
and the big question is when will it be used that's that's kind of an unknown so um don't know right if I may Madam Chair the the entire point of of this uh this fund is the
fact that it is unanticipated uh because it almost all I mean the only the only time I could conceivably see it used is in the exact scenario I was talking about earlier where a student moves in midyear and we're suddenly on the hook for an extensive amount of special
education costs um and and as far as the transportation costs all of these funds can only be used on special education and that does include uh special education transportation costs which I will tell you um can can
be in some cases the majority of the costs because if there's an out of district placement and the programming isn't available um from you know any anywhere on the south coast you're looking at 200300 $1,000 of an additional transportation cost uh for a
single or maybe one or two students like it that it's the whole point is that is extremely uh unanticipated it's an unanticipated thing that if it happens it can it can wreak havoc on the entirety of of the school budget the the other thing I will say is that
I I don't think that the argument that having to go through two elected bodies to be get approval the argument that approval by an appointed committee somehow you know
will will put put it over the top as far as checks and balances go i I just I just can't really get with that argument i think there is sufficient checks and balances because again you have two elected bodies that have to approve uh the these extraordinary expenditures and that and they are if they happen they're
extraordinary and they're completely unanticipated so that's that's the nature that's exactly why this fund and why the state allows this fund to to exist and let's also be frank i mean the other reason they allow it to exist is because they continue continue to underfund the circuit breaker so they
kind of want to put it back on the town's make it a town problem so they put this in there too but anyway go ahead Zach um hypothetically there we in incurred a
cost in October of this year um that exceeded what we had in the the special education stabilization account by $100,000 like so in the scenario that you know we we weren't prepared for it or didn't have enough in there where
would that money come from to to pay for that you know unanticipated cost it would have to come from school budget yeah it could come from it could come from the school budget right so and and again your scenario is October which is
early in the fiscal year right so sometimes if an unanticipated expense comes early in the year there's an opportunity to to find budget savings in the future right so maybe it could come from the school budget um and maybe it
couldn't so in that case uh if if something came late in the year where you didn't have the opportunity for budget savings that potentially you could use this fund to cover that yeah and I'm just trying to like understand if there's any relation to
this and the potential for it to reduce the you know the need of the school's budget to take away from free cash um in in the future right because that's the ultimate goal is to kind of narrow that gap of of what gets put into there and I
and my understanding was there was a little bit of an intent on of that in this when it was the way the way the law is actually worded to have the ability to set up this account by state statute is that uh it it specifically states
it's for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs of special education whether it be for tuition out of district tuition or transportation so uh I'm reading from last year's warrant as to how it was voted in and
what the provisions were so it is the intention of the stabilization fund is not to augment the budget in any way it's truly there for the purposes of unanticipated uh expenses that came up that were not
known when the budget was put together or voted on okay which which can easily happen you know we vote on a budget in May and in August they could have a new student move in that has significant needs which have a lot more expense than what was
anticipated in the budget for the year and you know I would I would just think that that would be well documented it because it has to comply with the state law and that's where I think the town accountant would have to step in as well to make sure that it would meet the um
the qualifications of using that account for that purpose and what was the motion was it to increase 175 to 250 was it to 250 yes okay
and currently last year there was 55,000 um from one um from a a a leftover uh school building project from a prior year um it was the clock uh clock uh paging system
that had funds left over 55,000 and that's what's in that account currently [Music] thank you hugh go ahead you've got your hand up yeah my inclination is to split the
baby that is to vote down the increase for all the things that everybody's saying but to stay with the original amount for the other reasons that are being said i recognize we're that this is a creature of the state i was going
to say maybe we could amend the bylaw but we can't if it's a state creature so we're stuck with it on the other hand I think the basic um justifications are decent
justifications but I would as I say compromise and go with the original number but not go with the increased number so I would be inclined to vote against Chris's increase but then I would presume there'd be a motion or I
would do it if someone else doesn't to approve the original number i feel similar to that yeah and and I I mean I'm in support of segregating these funds for special education for unanticipated expenses i
think the concept is terrific just like the capital stabilization fund puts specific funds for capitalization so I'm in total support of it so of the the concept of the the funds I think it's it helps we can't do anything about changing no I
know rules at the state so you do yes or no so we have a so we have a motion in a second to any Duncan Duncan just said agree but I'm not sure what he agreed with I think he
he agreed he agreed with you Morton's comment oh okay thank you I didn't know when that came up to to know what Oh he say with you okay gotcha thank you Duncan um all right so we have a motion
and second for 250 no yeah you're right right and so if no other um discussion I guess we can go to a roll call on that um Cindy uh I'm going to vote in favor
of this uh I Christopher christopher Thrasher i Hugh Hugh Morton nay duncan duncan says no duncan says no uh thank you zack Zach Leo nay and Karen Rouse
nay okay so I think we would want another motion for a different amount i would move to approve the original amount which I believe is 175,000 that's correct second
any discussion on this motion uh okay duncan said no also okay uh all right so I'll go to a roll call cindy Cindy Brown i thank you christopher Christopher Thrasher
no hugh Morton you Morton I Duncan duncan says wait duncan says no and I No he says I I to the I to the Gotcha gotcha thank you duncan says I uh Zack
Zach Lru I and Karen Rouse I okay um that puts us through um that okay so we're through the the warrant articles hallelujah uh all right so um the next item on the agenda is
um a discussion of the finance committee annual town meeting presentation so I have not put anything together yet and I'm just not certain i have uh that collectively we've said anything different this year that we've said in
the past so I'm not really sure how different the presentation would be um so I'd be happy to recirculate that and maybe if we meet in two weeks we can determine if if we have a different message or we want to add something
karen I would only add I think that the the the message and um I'm not here to say this is what the message would be and then say "Oh you just go figure it out." Um but um I think that the one thing that will be different and may
surprise the voters at town meeting is how much money we have in free cash so I think it's the explanation of how free cash is generated that might be something different this year than what we've had in the past i mean we've talked about the use of free cash um and
I think we can continue to talk about it but we have not been um as fortunate to have s such a large amount and that this was a catch-up year to be able to add to things like some stabilization accounts add to some uh
you know uh capital improvement uh items things of that nature that um I don't want people to get the idea that we're spending on all of these things but yet not spending on some others so it it's
for a very specific purpose we use that for we use that free cash for a very specific purpose and not the operating budget i think that's just an underline that we don't use that money for operating funds i think something as simple as that i don't think we have to
go to anything elaborate at all but just we don't use this for operations you know period i mean that's that's the message we have a lot more this year and we don't use it for operating budget and we have no idea what will happen next year right right i
think that that's three simple points it's larger this year we don't use it for operating funds and who knows how how small or large it will be in in succeeding years and I think that that's that's pretty
much is as far as an explanation I think that you go it's when it starts to get complicated you lose people because then they feel like oh I don't understand this so I'm not going to read this anymore on the latter theme I'm not sure whether this should or should not be
mentioned but let me just try it out for thinking purposes the city of Boston and other elements in Massachusetts have been thumping their nose at that Washington or Haley's been fairly careful to to stay out of the line of
fire so far and that is state or Boston really doesn't seem to drop down to the level of Westport in terms of federal money for this and that however is lurking out there and people have concerns about it right or wrong i
raised that as something to think about only because I'm not sure a it may be too politically focused for us to really mention it or people are thinking about it and we'll appreciate some comments on it so we leave it to you Karen to figure
it out that's not fair but you know what yeah it it's it's certainly um yeah who knows right what's going to happen next year but um if a potential
recession or uh putting that aside that's economic political liberal funds being it's directly in Massachusetts is not in good favor in Washington and leave it at that
well I'd be more inclined to talk of economic issues than Massachusetts because that's you know leave that to you just economic is anybody's guess right and and it's still
an open an open book as far as the feds are concerned but it is perfectly clear that Massachusetts and the feds are antagonists rather than cooperatives at this point so whether it affects us at the state level and city town level is a
very good guess maybe not right well maybe there'll be a couple of town meetings that happen before us and we can see what other towns discuss as I say I agree 100% on the free cash and the other back we are talking about
just and this is a thought that's all thank you any other thoughts on anything okay well I'll um I'll dust off last year's and and then uh
You all can respond to me individually if you have comments on it and then I'll incorporate it into the into to the next so um okay um next item on the agenda is discussion any leas committee or layers on updates at this point does anyone
have anything that they'd like to add no okay terrific okay so the next item is um to approve the minutes we have three dates january 21st March 11th and March 25th can we do them in total
i think we can i wasn't at every one of the meetings i think I missed the March 11th so I was going to abstain from that oh so we should do them a vid individually then right i think individually probably better yeah okay so the first date is
January 21st make a motion to approve the minutes of January 21 2025 second thank you any discussion on those minutes okay i will roll call cindy Cindy Brown i Christopher
christopher Rasher thank you hugh hugh Morton i Duncan duncan says I Zack zach Laroo i and Karen Ross i thank you the next date is March 11th 2025 make a motion to approve
the minutes of March 11 2025 any second i'll second thank you Hugh any discussion on those minutes okay uh roll call cindy Brown cindy Brown i Christopher
christopher Thrasher did you say I i missed no you did that was an I yes okay thank you hugh Martin i duncan duncan says I uh Zach i'm gonna abstain from this one abstain thank you and
Karen Ross i and then the last set of minutes is March 25 2025 make a motion to approve the minutes of March 25 2025
second thank you any discussion on those minutes all right I'll go for a roll call cindy cindy Brown i Christopher Chris Thrash are thank you hugh Hugh Morton i
Duncan duncan already said I zack Zach Lrew i and Karen Rouse i thank you okay uh we are whittling down here so uh next item correspondence i have no other correspondence oops was someone saying
something sorry no okay um next meeting um I'd like to have a meeting really just to check in before town meeting and and go over the presentation one just uh if we do one so we pick a date is that
two weeks from now i got to pull up my calendar yeah me too so the 5th would be So town meeting is May 6th right mhm correct so if we meet on the 22nd the 22nd that would
give us two weeks to town meeting which could work which is great it's right in the middle i'm fine with that i'm good with that okay all right so we'll set that as the date um
Okay uh I have no other topics uh within 48 hours and again if anybody has any future correspondence to add to an agenda please let me know and um also if I don't respond to an email please resend it because I obviously miss
Christopher's email somehow and I don't know where it went but um I try to check my emails but I get lots of junk mail as we all do so they can easily get missed so if you don't ever hear from me it's not intentional um so it's always good
to email both myself and Cindy uh so this way Cindy's a good double checker for me so in other words I'm a n she'll go Karen did you see that email well she'll usually text me to ask
me if I saw Did you Are you gonna answer right are you gonna answer that email so thank you um okay uh anything else for anybody before we wrap it up tonight all right well thank you everyone terrific have a good night thank you
thank you we didn't motion have a motion to motion to motion second all right i'll do a roll call quick cindy cindy Brown i Thank you Christopher christopher thank you Hugh hugh Martin i
Duncan he already said I Zack zack i Rosai thank you great