##VIDEO ID:u-K5vuaGz40## welcome everyone this is the finance committee meeting it is 6:32 pm on November 12 2024 I'd like to call this meeting to order with a pledge of allegiance I have Pledge of Allegiance Al to flag of the United States of America to the rep stands indivisible with liberty under Mass General Law chapter 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded this meeting is being held remotely in accordance with the governor of Massachusetts March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law GLC 3A section 20 and on March 29th 2023 Governor herley signed a supplemental 2023 budget Bill allowing for remote and hybrid meeting options for public bodies through March 31st 202 five well welcome everyone uh thanks for everyone here so I just want to um need to do a roll call of who's here uh all our members are present so Christopher Thrasher Cindy Brown Gary Carrero Zack Lau Al Duncan law Michelle Orlando Hugh Morton and myself Karen Rouse so we have every member here so welcome thank you for being I know Full House um so I want to get started the first item on the agenda I had asked Our Town Administrator Jim hartnet to join us and just give us a an update on a couple of items that um have circulated recently one would be uh updating us on free cash so we had that certified and maybe Jim can kind of talk us a little through that um understanding a little second item we asked for Jim is is understanding what happened with the the change in the diamond debt um and then any general budget updates um so I believe Jim is here right Jim there he is yes hey Jim you're on mute Jim there you go J Jim is here hi Jim yeah so I got a couple of quick slides I can show you perfect there we go all right so you were asked about the free cash allocation so we had it certified um on October 16th this year which is probably the earliest we've had it certified all the years that I can remember last year I think was January um Finance teamco Su braon and de really did a nice job of getting this stuff done getting the information up to the state to get it certified early um free cash to general fund were $3.5 million har Enterprise was 124,000 water Enterprise was 333,000 Beach Enterprise was 283 um the harbor Enterprise in the waterline the waterline Enterprise kind of remained the same from the previous year the harbor and the beach went up slightly or stayed closed um obviously the general fund is is much higher than we normally see that's due to a number of reasons um this just gives you a list going back to 200 2004 where free cash as you can see over the last three years we've started to climb a little bit um it looks great but you know we're just getting close to other communities that are similar to Four River or similar in size budget wise the free cash this year came from we were asked to see where it came from and this isn't a one for one but it's it gives you a general idea for the most part where the 3.5 came from um we carried over 172,000 from last year's budget um the department turn backs for just over a million $1.1 million and the local receipts is the big one that was about 1.6 million doar and we we budgeted about 76% of actual um the standard where we' like to be is somewhere in between 70 and 80% um so we're right where I think we should be um we bumped it up a little bit last year and we probably have to bump it up a little bit this year but um we're nowhere near where we were a few years ago we're up 96 97% of actual receipts um that gives you no no flexibility and one of the things that we've seen the last two years is our excise tax which is about 40 42% of our local receipts has leveled off and and actually gone down the last two years slightly um you know a percentage point or so not much but it hasn't been going up and before that it was going up1 $200,000 a year um so so we're losing that new Revenue I'm not quite sure when that's going to pick back up again but again going forward in this year's budget we're going to have to tap into this a little bit so we might be up to 85% um and that's still not going to get us where we need to be budget wise but it'll give us a a little bit of Revenue um that we're going to need just to get through this year's budget state aid we got a little bit more um Revenue actual over what the estimate is even in July when we get the final budget from the state it's very close to the actual but there are changes depending on School enrollment school choice Chada school and a few other things so we picked up about 20,000 there and 141,000 we picked up in uh the assessments uh and that's ch out of school school choice those went down a bit from what they had originally budgeted in the Cherry sheets um and then there's some misscellaneous charges um that are in there about 400 some thousand and that gets us up to the 3.5 and the $400,000 is an exact there's a number of factors that plays into the free cash um you know we really pushed this year to get any grants that we had out there we wanted them U the reimbursements submitted prior to the end of September so it wouldn't hit off cash last year we had our chapter 90 which is our street our street program which um the reimbursement because the work was done later was not submitted until after September so that hit our free cash last year by about 500,000 so we tried to get our grants in um reimbursements and we've had a lot of them either through Opa um local grants federal grants the Departments have really done a nice job over the last few years of getting grants but the administration and the uh seeking reimbursement is time consuming and um really push to get those done so we can get you know a higher amount of free cash but this will make free cash a little bit less next year because we've kind of exhausted all our um all our opportunities to to increase that this year and then this I just wanted to show you I have dmouth seon Sumer said Swansea and Westport um Westport is the red line at the right hand side of each year and this this is free cash allocation certified each year for these communities you can see where Westport has been at the bottom or near the bottom every year going forward even even this year 2025 you can see Swansea is the uh the higher amounts they actually haven't been spending that they weren't spending their free cash so they would just carry it over and you can see the increase was still about three four million each year they just started spending it I think they used like 15 million for their library and they're going to use another seven or eight million for their Town Hall uh Annex Improvement um going forward but I just wanted to point this out you know we got 3.5 million in free cash this year but it's still not a lot in comparison to the other communities that's all I have on free cash if you have any questions do that and then I have a little bit on D on Diamond Jim in terms of um the so I think you gave us a copy of the turn back so I think that's in our Google Drive um can we just look at that for a second was there was it all departments equally that kind of contributed to that or was there one or two departments that were the Big Driver of that no it was was actually spread across most of the Departments pretty evenly right the general government we had 316,000 um Reserve fund was the big one at 77,000 but the other ones were fairly consistent you know like Town Hall Annex um you never know you get a hit on that we wipe that whole thing out or you you get something where you don't have any big expenses and you get some turn backs but uh most of them were relatively small you know the the treasurer um collector and the accountant they had wanted to purchase some software which they didn't purchase this year which would be in next year's budget so we had a turn back there yeah nothing nothing outstanding um Public Safety we actually have less this year um we had five unfilled positions in the police department so the previous years we've been getting some pretty significant turn Backs from the police department but um J remember there was a significant transfer at the end of the year that would have affected that yeah so they had some Cruisers they uh did a few maintenance things they bought some equipment that had been lagging there for years so that's actually pretty low um education we had about 12,000 combat education Public Works we had a little bit Highway 124 snow and ice excuse me second sorry about that yeah snow and ice we got a little bit back transfer station cemetery and nothing um veterans actually went down um I say went down we got a fair amount back in veterans at 113 this this next year's budget they've reduced their budget um to account for that they have less less clients I guess and then health insurance was about 290,000 which is pretty standard so that gets us up to about the 1.1 so yeah nothing nothing out of the ordinary on the turn backs that I can see right thank you any questions from anybody on that comment not a question it when when we have um uh departments for example that are oh maybe you can scroll the slide up a little there we go yeah that'll be great some of the turn backs are are normal and when you said for example police that are that are down isn't that a good thing we have gone from 3132 needed police officers down to 26 uh it is my understanding and so the reduction in in the police for example is actually a good thing which means that we have more safety no they Al the police are trying to fill those positions that was a oneoff situation one off in in in from they had previous year's budget to they were funded Physicians they were unable to fill retirements Etc right at least a couple of kids in the academy they're filling the positions right and so there won't be that there should not be that kind of excess fund because that was through circumstances I yeah I I'm I'm sorry to interrupt but I I I probably misspoke and we saying the same thing that from last year or the year before to now there's been reduction in the excess and that's hopefully will continue to be a reduction because that means that there is more you know the the the the the the payroll if you will it is is being filled yes yes but no in the sense that the reason there was a reduction was because the use a good deal would have been a contribution or transfers for equipment at the end of last fiscal year couple hundred, so that had they not used it in that fashion the turn back would have been a lot bigger but that was a oneof because they couldn't fill the positions the funds right that were used that could have been turned back and hopefully that's not the case this year so so that was last year right so we had the five or six vacant positions and they used those funds for um different things to cover expenses at the end of the year that's right this year um we actually amended the contract that allows them to hire um offices outside of town so they've been able to fill I think five of the six positions um with experienced offices so next year or this FY 25 we won't see um significant turn back for police yeah yeah thank you Jim that's what I was trying to say yeah great thank you um any other questions on free cash before Jim moves on to Diamond no okay go ahead Jim thank you yes so Diamond Regional School voted mid October to um increase their overall budget from 293 million to 305 million and that has to get approved by the community participating communities Somerset Westport Swansea Fall River um in order for that to go through they had done when the original estimates came out or when they first just before they would go out to bid um they had to do they call Value management and they they valued out took out a lot of uh different items from the school they actually reduced the size of it um they removed Granite curbing They removed different finishes on the inside I don't know all the details from what they moved but it's it's it's not uncommon for them to do that when they get closer to the final numbers so um after that though they went back to the msba and the msba increased their reimbursement so in the second column there the original award from msba was 148 million they agreed to award the project 173 million so with those additional funds they requested that the communities um increase the overall project from 293 up to 305 million and that impacts the overall borrowing in a couple of ways if if we kept it at the same number Westport share is 5.3% so originally we were going to have to pay back $7.6 million with the additional money from the msba that reduces it to [Music] 6.3 with the increase in the overall project it bumps us up to seven which is still almost 700,000 less than we we thought we were going to be paying um four months ago but it's 600,000 more than um we're going to be paying if it wasn't increased um the Nuance of this the difficult part of this is that um town meeting only approved 293 million so the additional funding has to come from the operating budget which if they borrow the full amount would be anywhere say 28 to $38,000 a year at the maximum um we're requesting the D de2 form uh will'll be submitting to the Department of Revenue to see if they will approve the increase and allow us to included as excluded debt um that has not been filed with them yet I'm waiting for information from the architect we hope to get out that out either this week or next week um there are exceptions that allow you to do that if the increas in costs were due to inflation or um you know you can't change the overall scope of the project but if if there were items that were cut out and you want to put them back in um they may approve it the architect isn't 100% sure it's going to get approved but um I think we have a good shot I'll have to wait and see Jim did the select board vote to increase to accept the increase or did did anything or is it did what happened at the select board meeting they voted to accept the increase um if they didn't vote to accept the increase um they would have to vote not to accept it um and then the other communities would you know it could actually go to a referendum If Diamond pushed it um the Regional School District pushed it in that would be a a um majority vote of all the communities for over Westport Somerset and Swansea and that could overrule any other communities that voted against it do we know yet if the other communities have also improved the increase I don't know um I I've heard that Swansea and Somerset did not seem to um have any issues with it um I believe for is okay but I you know Fall River has to be approved by the city council so um it's tough to say Fall River also didn't approve the overall project is a debt exclusion so um this has a big impact on their operating budget they're also the big largest percentage they have the biggest share in this project so uh it cost them and Jim could you repeat what you said um what would be the end ual impact to the to the westport's operating budget if the if this incremental amount could not be excluded depends on the overall borrowing and what the borrowing costs are but they estimate Diamond estimates around 30,000 um we had done it we're up around 36 37 so and that's if they Bor the full amount um over how many years Jim 30 years so we're looking at million two roughly you cocktail napkin uh math so a million two over the over the term of the uh and that that's just the increase not the uh you know not not the overall right yeah so the overall would go down right the excluded debt would go down from 7.6 million down to 6.3 and the unexclusive that that comes let's go back to what because I'm not sure I I I heard you properly so the unexclusive the uh excluded debt to include that portion in our already approved excluded debt right okay all right there's a few things we're still trying to narrow down still trying to get an answer to if you know if they borrow 300 million um is 8 8.8% still uh non-excluded or is it just the you know the additional amount um on a side on a side note to that when the um select board met with the uh Diamond Representatives um our representative um Paul Jennings was present at the meeting I had an earlier meeting at Town Hall so I stayed for the select board meeting so I had an opportunity to speak with Mr Jennings and um invited him to come before the finance committee at a future meeting so if we have any uh more specific questions um about the budget for the construction or the budget for diamond we will have an opportunity to ask them directly he indicated to me that several years ago he used to come every year before the finance committee but had not um been invited for whatever reason for the last several years so um hopefully we will get him he did uh also uh indicate to me a preference for an in-person meeting uh that he said that he doesn't he doesn't like remote meetings but if that's what we do that's what we do so um he did he did say that he prefer to have it in person but um I will give him once we go through our our dates later tonight I will give him uh a set of options of dates that he can select to um come before our uh our committee thanks Cindy but this is a tough nut to to to absorb on this dinam because yeah you know our budget the westport's budget is so tight and whether or not this is 30 or $40,000 to go towards diamonds education I personally would rather see it go to Westport Community Schools education and so this is just a tough tough one to absorb that k i just suggest we wait if do goes want it goes away right well it's not our decision either so it's the decision's been made so it is it is what it is because the select board you know and I have a question on that just procedure wise just because I'm not understanding if the original vote went had to go to town meeting how is this able to just be approved by the select board and not have to be revoted on so so the vote that went before downtown meeting was the borrowing of the 293 million it wasn't uh a vote approval or denial of the project so town did not have to approve the actual project the way statute reads to select board that has to approve it and if they don't approve it within 60 days it gets approved automatically and if the selectman voted against it they would have the option of uh doing a referendum question with the communities because of the community I knew the co community vote has okay so it was just the borrowing of it well that's right so if the if the question had not passed the project would still happen but then it would be funded through westport's operating budget which would have been a very difficult thing to absorb understood understood oh boy yeah I'm with you on that Cindy that's just and I would I I will I will just make a comment uh not I mean the town meeting spoke so therefore we have to to go with that but I would say that the thing that really fries me is the fact that 37 to 38 call it 40% of diamond students actually go into the trades the balance of the this this is a uh you know it it does we we we focus on Vocational High School as the trade school but less than 50% of the people actually go into the trade so so that's what we're funding we're funding people that are eventually going to college and doing whatever they do and that's fine they they're kids but but it's not what we are what what it's designed to be it's it's somewhat of a a you know a wolf and sheep's clothing but there's nothing we can do about it it because the town meeting has voted on it well out of moratory that's the way the world has changed and nothing westbr can do about it uh we could have voted against it but that's that's here and there because it's already been voted for right great thank you any other questions on on diamond no okay um thanks for that Jim um just while you're here and I know it's early in the process just just kind of do you have any sense of a how your budget process is going I know you're on schedule I'm sure for the mid December first round rollup um all right imagine you're I don't want to speak for we're on schedule um it's you know one thing I've learned last three or four years is that uh it's really tough to do the budget until you get the preliminary numbers from the governor um which come out in January um but based on what we've seen I I think we're going to have somewhere around a million maybe if we're lucky up to $1.4 million of Revenue that we can split between the uh School in the town um you know it was a little disappointing last year um you know we used quite a bit of free cash to to balance the budget of town meeting I think 650 plus thousand doll so uh if if we do the 54 46% split with the new Revenue the school's going to be at a level funded budget from what they got last year um looking at the Town side we may be able to make it work um maybe not filling you know we had an engineer in the position in the budget last year if we don't fill that and we tighten up a couple of other things we may be able to um Squak by um I the issue is how how do we address the school's budget um you know if they get a level funded budget it would be devastating to them um you know last year we tried to look at a plan maybe where we get it down from 500 to 400,000 um but that would have addressed or that would have changed the overall Revenue split and and we just didn't have the support for that um so yeah I don't I don't have a good answer how to get there to the school I I don't think you know we can't go up in free cash anymore um to support the operating budget because you can see what it's doing this year right last year was 500 this year was 650 um we need to start working our way down um but I I think you know discussions from last year with the school budget they're looking at just just minimum wage just for the wage increase of their existing employees you're looking at $600,000 ,000 plus so that eats up um any new Revenue right there so um going into the budget if we go with level funded they're going to be 600 plus in the whole to stop and that's without changing any expense accounts that's without addressing any new staff members yeah I I don't have an answer yet for that I will say that you know up until this year we've been doing the 2% raises pretty consistently for all the unions this year we're up to 3% just over 3% um I think we're still at the low end compared to most communities but still an extra percent that we have to absorb into the to the operating budget and our revenues aren't increasing J the state figures will be what they are but the state has two albatrosses to deal with Stewart which will have a continuing and of course the illegal aliens that are Ed a billion dollars a year then I wouldn't hold my breath that the state will be more generous one of the B one of the bigger factors is going to be the Chapter 70 and where we fall in that right uh three years ago we were getting minimum aid for Chapter 70 and we were getting anywhere from 30 to $60,000 increase a year um two years ago we got about a $500,000 boost because um we fell out of that minimum the community or designation and I I was hoping we'd get that same $500,000 boost last year but we didn't it was 250 to 300,000 so um you know I'm not sure where that's going to fall are we going to get 60,000 or we going to get 400,000 extra in Chapter 70 I don't know so that's a big number you know they only I'm Sor the only other local number that we're waiting for which we'll get um couple of weeks will be the uh New Growth um but we're not expecting anything out of the ordinary on that we budgeted 400 I'd like to hope that we get 600 which should put 200,000 additional Revenue in but um we'll see and the um and and and Jim looking at the uh uh the DLS website there is there are increases in certain categories but having said that they don't even come close to CPI or anything else so we're actually in a deficit when it comes to just normal day-to-day operating expenses I'm not I'm not going back five years 10 years I'm talking about year over year so so that's a struggle as [Music] well yeah it's like the last few well probably like the last 10 years 15 years there's really no good news so oh there's no good news I mean it's it's as a matter of of fact uh you the the the uh uh UGA funds for example are actually forgetting uh CPI increases in the last 10 to 12 years they're actually dollar to dollar below where they were in 2010 2011 2012 right just after the crash in in 2018 so you know you got to play the card you dealt but the fact is that that there's there is no good news really in as I see it when it comes to the uh the The only positive I knew positive news I see and it's it's not going to happen for another four or five years is 20130 we're supposed to have our pension uh Bristol County retirement pension caught up so we've been paying extra into that each year not by choice we required to um but they expect that to be um caught up in 2030 so at that point um we don't have numbers yet as to what the reduction will be but instead of paying three and a half million doll we may only be paying $2 million but yeah so he h and I will be dead by then so other than that I I don't have much for you um on the market doing well in the meantime so don't hold your hand yeah that's one of the things we've we did well on last year right on our um our investments there were a few years there when things were slow we're getting 30 $50,000 a year you know I think we're up to 500,000 last year on investments so the Dow was up 1500 points after the day after the election we can't count on that going forward no all right Jim I appreciate anybody else have anything for Jim no thank you Jim we com a good night all right thank you all right um before we go on I was looking at our list and I don't see Gary and was I mistaken when I thought I saw him or did he disappear did anybody happen to see him or was I the only one that thought I saw him I I did not see him I you did it's usually that that phone number with you know just the class four I did not see him okay because I may have I may have made a mistake when I went down it says also invited and it had Gary's um there so maybe I saw that and thought he was here but he was just on the invited list so um I think we may need to modify our minutes on who's here so I don't believe Gary was ever here so um I apologize for that so he is not here now I don't think he was here uh okay uh let's see and Chris came in at 6:37 so thank you okay okay so thank you um the next item on the agenda is any committee or L us on updates um does anybody have any interesting to share Karen I will I do have one comment um I thought at our last meeting uh we were going to re-evaluate um and and maybe I'm mistaken we re-evaluate who has what uh departments to cover I thought there were some people that were in a deficit of uh accounts to cover but maybe we did reassign that and I forgot yeah so I look at I didn't look at the minutes yet so I apologize that's okay so Duncan was the um since Duncan was our newest member right he he came in after we had pretty much um done all the budget so we were going to reallocate that but then Duncan volunteered to be the school department L us on so that that takes his place he needs no more than that right right then that's that's for sure so then we all have uh have something we do not have a a um official Diamond representative though you know Tracy used to cover that as well as the schools and Diamond was included so I do not believe we have a um Diamond representative per se right uh I'm happy to cover that um since I've made contact with Mr Jennings but I don't have hard hard uh feeling about that I will say that my list of departments is relatively light I have I mean really the only significant budget that I cover is um councel on Aging I cover Town Hall but that kind of gets roped into the select board one so it's not really um it doesn't become very heavy uh because Jim does a good job in overall putting that together so um uh consant aging is my only other budget that I that I follow so Department budget that I follow yeah I mean if if you like to hold on do the diamond rep for a little bit and then maybe in a year or so when Duncan's when Duncan's more comfortable with the school budget that might be something that would fit in that sure as all school but it can be different because they are totally separate entities but y Al has a question yeah just just a comment the um I had a great meeting with the fire department today which I'm the leaz on there and I'm also on c cipc as far as I remember assessors and Treasurer are part of my domain is that correct I I I it was Theo and um I'm I'm sorry I'm forgetting her name the treasurer can can you confirm that they're self-contained I mean they're they're wonderful they they have their budget but I but I am the liais on there and I just need to to verify that info Al um after this meeting I can redistribute you do that yeah that be great our committees and our uh departments as well great thank you that would be great great great um any I'm just trying to think of Duncan I think you're on the infrastructure committee now has there been any meeting being scheduled or is anything happening it just uh literally this week they reached out to try to schedule a meeting and we're working around Jim hartnet schedule okay to make sure there's a quorum but it literally happened yesterday okay all right great thank you I as I mentioned earlier when I uh attended the select board meeting a couple of weeks ago because I had an earlier meeting and that was an audit committee meeting um nothing U we got the news about the certified free cat at at that time uh and really all of the items for the most part um from the management letter from the uh audit have been uh addressed uh we talked about uh you know tax title uh takings a little bit but other than that uh really the audit committee um uh there our role has become a lot easier because so many things now have been corrected and up toate and um the uh the Auditors have been very pleased with our progress uh in uh making sure that we've got things documented and that we've got things reconciled and as you can see the free cash was done very early so that means things are really tidy up um and they've already come in to collect their items for the audit uh Which is far earlier than they've been able to do um in previous years so we'll see the audit results much earlier um in in the in 2025 than we would have uh in previous years as well so that was pretty much the result of the uh audit committee great thank you Alis see is um Capital Improvement kicking in soon for for meetings the answer is yes I believe so of course I'm a new member on cipc and I cannot remember I can look at the calendar but it's in the next few days or week that that cipc is is kicking in great um Paula had sent me an email and thought that you might not be sworn into that committee can you I I was at 11 o' I war in front of the town clerk so so I'm I'm I'm I'm good to go yeah all right great perfect thank you all right um any other committee updates worth mentioning nope okay all right so the next item on the agenda is the minutes of October 8th 2024 did everyone have I don't know that I've actually read them did they get distributed do we have them I think so I have to admit I have not read them that was the eth right right yeah yeah that's that's in the folder yeah yeah nor nor of I so we should pass we pass pass and do a double on the next meeting yeah absolutely uh we will do that all right the next item is correspondence um I just want to speak very briefly so our correspondence we did receive um a letter from the state in terms of our open meeting law U violation so they did they did in fact give us a violation for um the the actual agenda not being complete in terms of what we discussed and um I'm going to call and they I'm going to call them to just have a conversation because I think there's still a little confusion on what the violation was and then I'm confused as a chair where we had we had an item on the agenda which was a general business dis General budget discussion because we had done all the department meetings and we were having discussions and the um as it's a it's a public posted meeting the chair of the school committee joined the meeting as well as the superintendent which they're fine to do but they weren't specifically invited to discuss the school budget but of course we did discuss the school budget because they were there and part of the violation was that we didn't post that we were discussing the school budget but we couldn't because we weren't discussing the school budget we weren't having a department meeting with the school so there's a little I'm a little conf confused on what causes that to be an issue so either I can't imagine if someone joins the call that we can't entertain a conversation with them if it's on the topic a general topic that's posted but I'm just really unclear on what how that caused the issue so Karen I I have noticed that the select board has also taken a very narrow stance as to what they are willing to to if there's an item that was on the agenda and then there's some tangental discussion even though it might be somewhat related to the item that was on the agenda they've taken a very strict um course regarding that you you really can't discuss it because it's not a specific G agenda item I do not know whether or not the select board has been cited as well for the same issue but it seems um that that has become a much more conservative approach uh regarding our ability to just discuss budgets in general even though you have a general budget discussion posted um I think that hampers us a little bit in our ability to relate things you know from one Department to another um but it'll be interesting to see how that that goes going forward yeah I'll and I'll I'll try to call them to just try to I think there was still confusion as it was written that it was a department meeting and we that it was a department meeting and I tried to express that the school presentation was a month earlier so it was not a department pre budget presentation it was it it was an after Thea followup but um but it is what it is if that's what it is then we just need to be we it's this is not meant to be open conversation about any topic we want so uh we just need to be maybe more careful with how our conversations go but uh Al you had your hand up I'm I'll defer to Hugh but I do have a question yes okay go ahead Hugh oh you're you're muted I'm just going to say that in governmental uh calls these days Common Sense is a small and small quantities that for all of you it's not directly relevant but I was interested to see that Costco has recalled 880,000 pounds of butter because the labels were defective supposed to say contains milk and didn't apparently people will not understand without that I just don't have nothing to do with our conversation maybe it's illustrative of something going on in the world all right right well good okay so so so my my my question is at what point because I can talk to anybody like like everybody else on on the screen at any point any time for any reason at what point may I speak to somebody on the finance committee a about a finance committee issue and when can I have to bottle it up which is will be very difficult pardon answer a quorum okay so anything short of a quorum if if two of us are having a cup of coffee yeah no problem good to go right right all right that's fine or three of us at the social club good to go got that's all I need to at five once you get is considered a de facto meeting yeah gotcha okay there's there's there's extensions to that Al right so right if the three of three people were meeting and having a conversation that's fine but if then one of those members then goes to talk to another member and then that member goes to talk to a different member they're one-on ones at the at that time it's still that can be considered a quorum well then just shoot them if they talk about that's only if they talk about the same thing right right right and I think you'd also add into it if it was premeditated as a just casual conversation okay right all right I can't have a one-on-one conversation with each of you about the same topic because then that's a quorum gotcha all right no that's good that's good Intel that's H you know this is a new world for me and I just want to make sure that I I I stayed within the guard rail so okay thank you appreciate that and definitely read the open meeting law um guidance and it really goes into it goes into those scenarios and it goes into great examples and email is is similar and so um definitely can read the guidance that's that's helpful too I I'll I'll rely on you I mean I thank you right Z also go ahead Zack I I I wasn't sure if you could see it because I can't see my face on the computer screen anymore I'm having glitches here um so my question is if we get reprimanded for discussing a financial topic on this meeting that's not on the agenda what happens if we have an item on the agenda and we don't talk about it that's okay so um it it's it's always okay to pass over something that we're not prepared to talk about so we could always just put a blant statement on there and talk about anything right like when you said General discussion that should mean General discussion that's what I kind of thought um but it ended up turning more from a general discussion because members of the school committee and superintendent came and they they engaged in conversation and then that turned it from a general conversation to a discussion about the school budget that's that's kind of what what transpired and just to complicate things there's a general approach of things not anticipated beforehand they come up within 48 hours they're not on the agenda but you can steal with them under those circumstances so that just sort of goes against all we're saying but it is there but that isn't that for isn't that 48 hour issue one that requires or should have some element of urgency or is it just things that come up I I I guess I was under the impression that if it was a topic that came up within 48 hours prior to the meeting that it was an urgent matter so it it it had to be discussed it couldn't wait until the next meeting Cindy I'm not aware of that within 48 Hours yes and I may just miss it but I don't know of any urg urgent need okay okay yeah yeah so I admit I'm a bit confused but but but anyway okay enough on the correspondence so um all right uh next item was topics for next meeting so this becomes really important so if there's something that uh you all feel you'd like to talk about let's and I ask we ask every meeting so please make sure you email me so we can specifically get it on the agenda um if that's a topic if if that's something you want to talk talk about go ahead Hugh I just want to Har back to something I should have mentioned earlier TR to consider it a CPC report the new um playground was inaugurated by the annex couple of weeks ago and I would say it was standing attendance only very well received that's terrific it looks terrific oh it's fabulous the good weather the good weather that we've been having I mean every time I drive by there since the weather has been so great the last few weeks I mean it's crowded all the time now so that's um that's excellent uh I do have an item that um we can bring up at the at the next meeting because I really don't know how to approach it and I guess to some degree I would have my Personnel Board hat on so uh I guess as as chair of the Personnel Board I would like to meet with the finance committee because I want to address the issue of um the lack of HR at um in in the town in the town hall um so I I think as a Personnel Board and I've G to talk with Jim a little bit about I've talked with Jim about this on several occasions and I know we can't discuss it right now but it's an item I would like to put on the agenda for the next meeting sure thing and just let me know if if if there are other representatives of this Personnel Board that would be part of the meeting then I'll make sure on the agenda so Jim would come or somebody else so thank you thank you um so um next meetings so our schedule here we go it's it's that time of the year so our next meet our meeting schedules are December 10th which is our regular meeting and then in January we kick it into gear year January 7 14 2128 then we'd have a week off and then our regular schedule would be February 11th and so I've already sent out that uh Google poll to the Departments and I've heard back from many of them so far so I will share that with you right after the meeting but it looks like we have a few lined up already for December 10th or have requested um the 10th so uh we can just see what works um so I guess the request for the diamond uh should I push him into January at at minimum you know I wonder um in regards to that so if we're having the Westport Community Schools on February 11th last year I think we did try to do that one in person because we thought that was an important one uh to do in person that maybe Diamond could come in from 6:30 to 7 okay and then we have the school at 7 this way we if you know if their request is in person we can try to accommodate that otherwise we are remote and they can they can be remote whate what date is that again Karen February 11th okay all right I will I will uh present that do we also have any feeling that given I know it's early and Jim doesn't have the numbers do you feel that it will be helpful to have a uh Tri party meeting meting again with the select board the school board and ourselves has any has any thought been given as to the necessity of that once again you know we did we did as a committee talk about that and we talked about we should schedule something and we just haven't all got together to do that but I think it'd be a good idea that we I think so too all get on together and try to mutually agree how we're going to deal with our budget issues mhm so December might be a little early or maybe we could try really right after the New Year we can you know we should be closer to um closer to I agree okay I'll reach out to the select board chair and get get their thoughts too Al you I you know it's it's part of the conversation that we're having I it would be helpful to get a calendar at least an initial calendar I I know that I believe that the fire department is thinking December 10th for their time may or may not be right but you know maybe we just get a preliminary calendar uh together for meetings yes and that that is what I'm doing right now so I did send out um so I sent out a Google poll asking each department to I gave them all the dates and asked them to First select what works for them okay I don't think I've heard from everybody yet but I've heard from a number of people departments and uh and you're right so the December 10th so far um Council on Aging has requested that date fire has requested that date um Sue braon treasur collector has re suggested that date as well so there's so we already could do three budgets on December 10th so s Susan did that a month after she was collecting taxes again so yeah smart smart move yeah and so it's it's kind of spread out so you know there's a few people that few departments on the seventh there's a few on the 14th so it's actually kind of working out so far naturally and but once I get everybody's responses and then I can see does it work as requested or maybe we have to switch one person one Department somewhere else that's great that's all I need to know I just just a prelim preliminary and you know a moving forward calendar would be yeah yes and I did confirm the school can come in on February 11th so that's good for them so that's confirmed for February 11th so right yeah once I get a couple more responses on this I'll forward everybody and then we and we'll publish the calendar of what the dates are great thank you sure thanks um okay anything else I just wanted to oh Zach go ahead sorry no he was first he was first I have a prior commitment on December 10 know there I think on the point of scheduling I think the police have talk thinking about January so that seems to fit in with what you're talking about yes yes so let's see this police had responded Yes January 14th is what their request was okay good as well as the assessors requested the 14th uh veteran services requested the 14th so it's I'll I'll share with everybody what we have so far so you can see so great right I'm sure you can do without me on the 10th we'll try Hugh it's always helpful to have you but we'll we'll survive it no decisions are being made so that's it's helpful if you if you miss a meeting it's not the end of the world right okay uh z z has Z go ahead I'm sorry I keep missing you that's okay of me I was just gonna say in regard to the school committee and the select board meeting I think the last time we discussed that we did say we wanted to kind of like put together an agenda or have a few Focus points that we discussed just to try to steer the convers ation you know with objective goals so i' propose that to add to the agenda for next meeting maybe we discuss a few of potential topics that we can talk about when we do get that meeting together if if the Departments are on board sure perfect yeah great idea Zach perfect yeah probably a good idea for for most of the bigger boards it's so easy to get you know derailed and yeah feel like it's valuable time to have all of us in the same room so maybe if we can come um with a with a game plan a good game plan it'll help right good idea yeah that's perfect well and the same thing applies to there it's not an open conversation meeting it's you know specific agenda so that's perfect we'll do that next next uh next month all all right I see no other hands okay so I have topics within 48 hours I have none uh I think that's everything on the agenda did I catch everything guys on the agenda I believe I did we'll just have to approve the minutes next week next the next meeting next meeting we'll pass over that okay if nothing else I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved terrific all right I'll do a roll call Christopher Christopher ther I Cindy Cindy Brown I Zack Zack Leu i al Le I Duncan Duncan l i Michelle Michelle landai Hugh h Martin I and Karen Rouse I thank you everyone have a nice night you e