Okay on the meeting of the Arlington Finance Committee to order First order of business is the minutes so Do I have any corrections? Dean Where we say What we thought it was going to be greater than project okay, which whiner you want it 20 education going on counting that was one two three four So it starts in the Senate before it's a resubmitting age as to the MSP for funding the unexpected enrollment group So it's I mean I think we should just strike the word unexpected Okay, got that Peter will do thank you Any others So we talk about On the next line it says the good news is That sped is under budget. She also transferred 200 to the under can to the sped stabilization fund Well, if you go through the box beds actually over budget by a hundred grand and she saved about 2400 grand of utilities Which is where she's getting the money from they said that But I said I talked to her after the meeting as we are actually a hundred grand over your budget not your projections be over so I don't It's what she said, but it's probably not all that correct because you did say later on in the meeting that the Utilities is what drove the big savings the budget Okay, then the good news is that The budget or yeah, maybe elements of the budget. Yeah Okay, so cross out sped and say that Call it elements you find a different word Peter. That's fine elements under budget of the budget is Is under budget? Okay, any other questions? I Have a down under where it says sped in about in the middle And then two lines down in response to questions about enrollment Bodie and Johnson stated that there are also Hard to predict size P changes Something's wrong in that space. See what I mean? Yeah Class size changes Sorry class size changes, okay So class Size cross out the P changes Okay, there are any other changes Okay, do I have a motion so move Okay moved and seconded any further discussion All those in favor of the minutes is corrected. Please say aye opposed Okay Conflict of interest I just received two more today so the one two three four five six Of the finance committee But I won't name names But you know who you are Please get those in okay now I believe that we can finish up tonight You know we have things to do I think only a couple of them will involve a lot of discussion most of them are fairly straightforward So I'm going to if it looks like we're going to finish I might suspend the merry ronan rule But I think we could finish if we can finish tonight now. We still have april 13th We still have the april 13th meeting to finish up A few elements we've got the collective bargaining on april 13th or with this whatever's up to that point We've got the human rights commission article 13. We have the fiscal Stabilization fund and any fine tuning so monday april 13th We will be meeting but if we can finish up tonight, we'll have to meet on monday now On monday alan Jones will be sending out the budgets Everybody should look at the budgets, especially your own You know look at the numbers under each person, you know Look at everything and make sure it's right the budgets are going to also go to the manager's office So if there's anything wrong, we'll blame him And then I'll also be sending out the finance committee report On monday for you to review Please look at everything. Please look at the comments And Email me back any corrections if you like to use a red pen like I do you can just put it in the mail to my house On that so the first thing we're going to be doing today is the warrant articles Then we're going to go to solar Then we're going to go to the final budgets So I can let the manager go home to his family But he'll be here for most of the time anyway Okay, so the first budget Article remaining is article 25, which is the rescission of borrowing authorizations. I sent that out Last week, I think And so Charlie if you want to maybe go through the big ones or well, just I think the There's about 15 items here the total is four million three hundred and thirty eight thousand five hundred forty seven dollars The big change from the first draft you saw this related capital committee presentation is that the Thompson school the unused Jet in the Thompson school has not been taken out of this because the Thompson school project is not officially closed yet So the treasure will come back to us probably the next annual county meeting to close out the rest of the Thompson school these numbers have been vetted by the treasurer the deputy treasurer The deputy town manager Ruth Lewis the comptroller and since a lot of them are public works Also by michael rato maker. So this this this is unissued debt that was authorized by town meeting that's no longer needed for various purposes in the largest is Some funds left in the urban renewal project Unused that in the urban renewal project, which is the same project in 2002 and the smallest is Five hundred and thirty dollars Entitled various So I move that we Support the town trader's request on this article to rescind four million three hundred thirty eight thousand five hundred and forty seven dollars Of authorized but unissued debt second Okay, are there any questions Slowly yes four million three hundred and thirty eight thousand five hundred and forty seven dollars And this was sent out Okay, and this is a good thing to get this dead off our books It helps the borrowing We're not near it So any questions or discussion Okay, all those in favor of uh proposal was recommended by charlie of article 25 rescind the borrowing. Please say aye posed Favorable action Okay article 26 is silver 526 is for the financing of silver work Um A million dollars the actual total amount of the silver work at 1.1 the hundred thousand to the company cash and the articles for the borrowed amount the sewer um Mwra gives a better sewer improvement incentive to give you a 25 percent grant And a 75 percent loan so the 25 percent is basically given money That's a pretty good thing so we want to take advantage of that That program Okay, so one million is appropriated and the million to be borrowed Okay for new people this is when the nwra overcharges us and then loans it back to us for free uh But if we don't take it somebody else will so Uh Is there any questions or discussion do I have a motion? So moved Okay, moved and seconded under article 26 all those in favor. Please say aye opposed the unanimous vote Okay, 20, uh 27 water This amount is 900 thousand And again for financing, but this one is water main work The only difference with same sort of situation. It's a million dollars in cash I mean a million dollars for the water work improvement, but 100,000 is going to come to the cash This one is a hundred percent interest free loan Like alon had paraphrase, but um, there is no grant money with the water And uh, I recommend that uh We approve this Okay, is there any questions A million or 900,000 900,000 is the amount in the arts And one million is the amount of the work that's going to be done They can use 100,000 in cash So the article tonight Okay, is there any questions or discussion? By the motion so moved second Okay, moved and seconded for favorable action. Is there any further discussion under article 27 for the borrowing for water? Okay, all those in favor. Please say aye. Opposed unanimous favorable action Minuteman Apparently there was a slight adjustment after Minuteman met with us We voted four million zero one zero four six three And apparently the last three digits should be nine five zero So basically we're increasing Uh, the assessment by about 500 dollars a little short of 500 dollars So again, the new number would be four million zero one zero nine five zero No, I'll stop it. Oh, okay. Okay. Is there any uh Do you know if that reflects the new checker 70 numbers? Uh Come after that and then work after that You know, I'm not sure and that is what prompted the change when the governor's budget came out Well, it might have been also, uh, you know, the other one item of school transportation or or something like that that caused the I caused the adjustment Dean are we voting the article again? Are we just voting the administrative change? Well, actually, uh We need a motion to reconsider So Okay, all in all favor reconsidering. Can we say aye? Aye. Opposed? Okay, uh So the new amount will be four million zero one zero nine five zero. Is there a motion? Second Any questions? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye Opposed favorable action No, no, no, no, no, no, no My border against the last time I can't put it for now Same here Oh, okay Thank you, ma'am. That's why I asked to agree with the district ministry of adjustment. Okay, uh No, actually I took that out of order article 28 Okay, all those in favor of the four million zero one zero four six three Or nine nine five nine five zero nine zero nine five zero Please raise your hand one two three four five six 14 opposed one two three It's always been your favorite school john Okay, so I think it's a great school Okay, 14 to three article 32 Appropriation public art east brownington. I think there's a Hand out So with that, I'll turn that over to the town manager. All right. Thank you I think either way it's probably going to capture Thank you very much. So this article This article is filed at the request of the town manager myself after Really a number of meetings in harlington public park, which is a subsidiary group of the vision 2020 culture and recreation task force They've been involved with a number of public art projects in town The cheerful where you sit project that's happened in the center along the bike path the past couple years and also art rocks monotomy Which happened? I believe I believe this this past summer. I don't know is that accurate peter they have Kept the ball rolling on a discussion that's been happening now for several years about including Public art as part of the mass av corridor or the east harlington mass av rebuild project Which is currently underway. So Several years ago. I think actually Predating my tenure a group from harlington public art came before the board of selectmen with the concept of having Multiple dedicated public art locations along the east harlington mass av corridor To be part of the project at that time the board did take favorable action to designate several sites included Um, which included these sites that you see on this proposal that was distributed One around the grafting street island at the intersection of grafting and mass av and also At the intersections of cleveland and mass av near the fox library The the idea here would be to put together a process to developer recruitment Solicit proposals and then eventually Fabricate and install theme-based public art At those two locations or in some variations surrounding those locations. So this is a proposal It's not necessarily the proposal that the town would execute if funding was approved But an example of a proposal that we could look at and also solicit some other Quotes from from similar vendors. So the proposal that's before you totals up to a request our estimated budget of 10 500 dollars and what that would do is Have this consultant work with the town to really put together the the recruitment or the the solicitation process The community engagement process to discuss exactly What we what the community would want to see in terms of public art In that area receive proposals And then get basically right up to the point of fabrication installation But this proposal wouldn't cover the building of the art the payment of the artist or anything in that regard I would view that that portion to be more based on a fundraising effort with Maybe in the future some consideration of town funding, but I would hope To be a larger fundraising effort. So that's the sort of the the quick and dirty of what we're looking for here To to fund this process for development and then solicitation of some public art along the corridor on East Island Did they do the The paint the electrical boxes in Arlington. That is api. Yes. Okay Now how did they raise those funds or did individual artists Sort of would agree to do it for free. So I believe the transformer box Project was funded by the Arlington cultural council, which is the locally appointed state funded council that gives small art mini grants Are there any questions for the manager To gene minnow the consultant gene minnow is the consultant yet As the consultant. Yes The public art fund Yeah, I I would say it's related in that the public art fund would be what I would Uh propose house fundraising efforts to fund efforts like the fabrication installation of art or other art projects in town Yeah, I think there may have been Nuance to that argument that they were not currently asking for taxpayer money But that the fund would be able to house taxpayer money in future at you know, should future requests be made I don't want to speak for them So are you saying that you're in favor of using taxpayer money to Finances artwork, you know, you know what I I am I've had over the course of the past couple years a lot of meetings with folks from both Arlington public art or api and the Arlington commission on arts and culture Which was the cultural commission until it changed its name last year Um, I think there's been a lot of involvement There's been a lot of energy and I I think they've delivered on some of the the goals they've set Putting together Where you sit and and myself seeing literally Hundreds of people come into Arlington center to be part of this arts project And my assumption being that some portion of those people patronizing the businesses and restaurants in the center So efforts like this things that build a vitality vibrancy in what would be otherwise business or retail districts I think do provide My question would be very specific though I didn't mean to you support this particular request, which is for a process right for a structure But do you support spending taxpayer money on artworks? I think a reasoned approach to spending taxpayer money on artworks. I am supportive of Okay, bill We'll see a very worky project. I'm just wondering if phase four, which is not included in the budget proposal Rather is going to be garnered through via fundraising Uh, it's kind of like a question mark Is with the project being jeopardy of not Going forward if fundraising failed, I mean I don't know enough about fundraising and how much that's required to get the whole scope of work completed So my my understanding sort of my prerogative is that Yes, those costs which could be larger costs than this should be borne predominantly by fundraising Uh, that said Um, a lot of how big that cost is would be determined by What this process looks like and what decisions are made for art I mean a very resilient sort of rugged piece of art Put together by You know an artist of some renown or some experience Could have a combined Significant cost, but that's that's not a definite or an absolute In terms of whether it would fail I suppose Rather than fail, we'd have to scale down Based on availability of funds And there are any other questions Dean So if this is a worthy project that you support, why don't you just cut something here? Why are there the warranty articles? That's a that's a fair question. I guess I would say historically projects such as this have Have taken this route as opposed to a budgetary route I'd say a fair approach may have been that such a project Should instead be a capital request as opposed to an operating budget request And I and I think that would be a fair criticism John If I may comment I think It's worthy of discussion on the floor. It's not meaning if I may Make that suggestion Rather than for him to I mean with your forward against it, I think it's worthy of a discussion on the floor Yeah, I'll just try it a little bit. I guess Any other discussion Trump I would say that I think this is a A good idea in general To set up the process so that there's a way to get art in front of the public But I I think I'm deathly afraid of Using town funds taxpayer money to pay artists That's a that is a hole that has no bottom And it also is is rife with potential for conflict because you know one person's masterpiece is another person's horror and and it can Raise all sorts of cultural and religious and other Issues that are best You know, I think not financed by the town government when we have other pressing needs to to face So I think the process the idea of having us A way to get something like this going is a good idea But but at the end of the day, I don't think we want to be financing artists May I just a few a few short responses? Everything you just said are things that come across my mind whenever someone in a role Like mine thinks about art because of course art is the eye of the beholder and the beholder could Not like it very much. There is risk involved in terms of precedent I I think this is a more piece by piece bit by bit a bit approach Which is not going as far as some other communities go by committing one percent of all capital projects to the arts or something That's more regular and definitive that goes to the arts. This is sort of uh, you know, we're okay with this but we We're not okay with the next one. It sort of gives us a continued choice and and also You know A lot of his energy has created a desire from the arts community for the town to fund Some kind of coordinator or facilitator position within the town budget And I've held very fast and hard against that in terms of competing with other More pressing and necessary operating needs I didn't even necessarily encourage capital investment But was more open to promoting that or being supportive of that based on the ability for it to be one time or a few times I've got two questions. Oh just um It's a display that's going to be on grafting street and cleaver street, whatever In a case or You know, I I I don't know exactly what it would be. It probably wouldn't be in a case. It would probably be in that, you know The chairman had suggested this as a way to think of it when I talked to him about the other day You know in boston, they have like that is it the cows or the frogs or you know, something something like that It could be it could be a statue it could be you'll be out there. Yeah, so Let's say you put it out there and Vandalism washes it away Where do we get the money to replace? I think we'd have to see if we could pursue some kind of insurance policy in the art I'm not sure if that would be awesome, but John, yeah, I just like to point out that Right now we subsidize art all over town. The Dallin Museum is a place where we in fact subsidize A place for people to see art All of our historic buildings are in a matter of speaking subsidies to art so Having something like this to think in that context. I think is a really good idea Okay, two questions. Well one question one concern um Question is wasn't there some kind of an arts lottery? um Develop it was years ago because it took money away from the lottery I don't even know if it's still in existence But a certain particle general lottery state lottery went to public art. Does that strike a bell with you? Isn't that what funds the cultural council which gives the local cultural councils their mini grant fund? I think it is. I'm not positive, but I think that's what you have any kind of money It's eight or nine million dollars statewide. I'd have to confirm that that's when it comes to mind Okay, so it seems to me if Um, since the arts lottery rated our money anyway Um, because that money comes from the lottery which goes to cities and towns Uh, that might be an alternative source to fund this beginning Um, but I guess my greatest concern is the reaction on town meeting and two weeks ago I wouldn't have worried about that reaction but today I worry about the reaction because We had a tragedy in East Arlington as most of you know and uh one of my It wasn't my neighbor, but he was a street over 91 was killed crossing the Crossing mass app Which is some people have called it a bit of the wild west down there Because you know, there's not a lot of lines and everything like that and I'm just wondering if Uh What would you say to the reaction of town meeting member if you see them, you know getting up and probably legitimately saying Why are we spending 12 million 12,000 dollars on art? Why don't we pay 12,000 dollars and pull these over time to put a patrol car where the radar gone down there and stop people from doing 45 and a third my 30 mile an hour zone The first thing I would say is the state Is currently investing nearly seven million dollars in improvements to that part of mass app for pedestrian Accommodations bicycle bike accommodations Motorist accommodations and public transit accommodations and that project could have and should have started almost a decade ago And could have been completed by now that'd be my first answer My second answer is after a direct conversation with the chief They can put all the speed patrols they want But if someone isn't cited for going over, you know 40 or 45 miles an hour Anytime someone's cited for 35 37 the courts throw them out And that's a major frustration of the police department So i'm not saying it's not a worthy endeavor, but it's not it's not a fix all or are solvable either Okay, so any other discussion? Okay, uh Someone you want to make a motion so All right, what's your recommendation? I'm sorry the request, um, you know this a proposal outlines 10,500 with the cost my request would be for 12,000 dollars 12 yeah Okay, so 12,000 dollars that's second Second second. Okay, is there any further discussion? Okay, so I'm going to go against it because um, I think art is a worthy endeavor. I think a lot of things are worthy endeavor But not everything that's a worthy endeavor Is a core mission of government. I mean providing poverty is a worthy endeavor endeavor. We don't have a Fund we're going to set up for that running health insurance for the endeavor. We don't have to talk for that I mean, you know, I think so I think saying that it's a worthy endeavor. Therefore, it's Worthy attack the entire tax base to pay for a small amount I just don't I've never believed in articles like that night. I never will and I know this is gonna, you know So that's just my opinion on Okay, any other discussion Tom? I want to vote against it for the reason is I think it's a wonderful idea Thank you Adam for doing it. But Once again, I feel we do something with no thought what it's going to cost to maintain this If something should happen the money's got to come from somewhere Vandalism bad weather whatever It we always seem to do that and then our maintenance We don't have any maintenance plan to it and we got to get the money from somewhere But I do think it's a good idea, but I'm going to vote against it because of that reason Yeah, one just the dressing being is concerning I think if you buy the argument that public art is an economic development measure and it can be a legitimate use of public tax dollars We have to make that connection between public contracting people in an economic development But if you could buy that connection Any further discussion John I wonder is it Useful in that context to to somehow tie it in with the Or tourist committee or Whatever they're called Yeah, right Just a suggestion. Yeah, I think it's a good suggestion Right The indian Yeah In town hall gardens, the town owns that And in this year's split between the operating and capital budgets are some restoration and maintenance monies That's a simple argument in some way Absolutely So you know both You know compelling arguments, but I think my my view the precedent has been set in this sort of thing So that's going to affect how I vote Okay, any other I'll go home to a colleague john here. I think that Many towns like garlandton already Directly or indirectly subsidized the arts and that you know in the day to day scurry of business and passing Million-dollar budgets sometimes we lose sight of What makes this a great town We're not asking for a lot of money for something like this and this might spawn other Other Other Participate ventures in the future. So I'm in favor of it Okay Any other discussion, okay all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand Four five six seven eight nine ten and eleven twelve Thirteen opposed One two three four five Okay, motion carries 13 to five Okay, and uh The last article we have to deal with is article 41 Um That is appropriation for oboe from oboe reserve surplus to Um To basically pay for the pay for the budgets our conversations with the assessing office They anticipate three hundred and fifty thousand dollars So article 41 That the sum of 350 000 dollars here by is appropriated transferred from oboe reserve surplus account Of the previous fiscal year said send to be utilized in the determination of the tax rate Second second. Okay, anybody have any questions? This is basically the money that's overly surplus the assessors declare The goes goes back the basically balance the budget Any questions? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed Unanimous, okay, so Now I think I'd like to Open up the discussion On the solar panel project The manager had come before is several weeks ago And put forth the details. There were questions from several members of the committee He put forth another Proposal and try to answer as many questions as possible. And I think several of you have been talking with him About this This is not a Appropriation it doesn't go before town meeting. It's basically if the town If the finance committee wants to Endorse the project So Manager, do you have anything else you'd like to add? I I think I'll defer to any questions or further discussion of the committee Uh, is there any questions for the town manager john So the projections based on the assumptions that we discussed last time was approximately two million dollars Two million dollars over the 20 years That was net present value. What was the net present value? Any other questions? uh, dick two, uh, I came across an article I think it was last week we controlled the electric companies Have been buying back a lot of this power at retail price And they can't change it to buying it back at wholesale prices But what is The buyback on this so As it is right now in this agreement and what we would sign as a separate Interconnection agreement with the utility would be to buy it at that retail price. It's called a class b3 market rate You're absolutely right. They want to change it. Yeah And we in the power purchase agreement. That's one of the items that should net metering credits Be eliminated. That's called net metering credits when we they buy it from us Be eliminated or substantially changed We would have to renegotiate The other thing that brought this article brought up was in arizona where they have a lot of soul They announced set the child $50 a reading on the meters where we when they read them Because they claim that the soul people are not picking up This year of the generation and transitions Do you hear anything about that? I've not heard any discussion about that in massachusetts Politically, I'd be surprised if met the massachusetts legislature Would approve something like that. It doesn't surprise me that they're pursuing that because I but they claim they push in the generation and Transmissions cost back on people who don't have so like myself or They claim it's costing two million dollars alone and Unpowerable I think it's fair to say You know not being an expert in all of the electricity markets that Solar energy in massachusetts and in most places is is subsidized by all of us is right there Because a lot of the incentives and Credits that are created are then are absolutely distributed back I am the same massachusetts is very caught on Uh, any other brian We talked about the agreement that um charlie sent out which was a sort of the 83k agreement in question To me the only there's an island we saw one downside in this And as pro-solar as it gets on page 16 of degree matter if you have it I didn't bring up right now, but uh, there's a reference to maybe this is the only cause of it that I saw That said that we as a town the buyer Have we can take 10 days out of every Let's say two years That you can have downtime And after that after the 10th day then the town actually has to pay in um to the And the only thing that I'm wondering about god forbid something happens to any of the roofs like The snow issues and things that are going on on that liability sticks out to me that 10 days Short of you know That puts the town on the hook I think a little bit So my perspective is the 10 days is a big win Most ppas don't have something like that 10 day clause I think and it certainly wasn't what amoresco Offer notes So we negotiated pretty hard to get that 10 day window so that we could address roof issues roof maintenance Uh other roof issues that would come up over the course of the life of this country Is that correlated by the number of buildings that we have I assume or in the sense that Is that How many how many buildings are we in six six buildings six buildings so if one roof goes down And the others are obviously working that one's down for 10 days Is it correlated that the maximum would only be One six or the number of kilowatts coming out of that to a building my understanding. It's 10 days per system per building Are the uh Are the solar panels attached to the roofs or they sit on the roofs the term is ballasted It's a fancy word for cinder blocks that are wrapped with a protective material to hold the Hold them down. Okay. Oh, uh, charlie. Yes Adam I I I want to thank you for getting this external review And and I'm glad to see that the somebody sings the detrimental law and the Viability and the assignment have been tightened up. What are the other issues you refer to here? You said there are other issues that the town will pursue with the advice of attorney bat So he um he put together or in working with our energy manager put together a list um Requiring of a performance payment bond for the contractor and their subs to prevent any needs against the town tightening up of indemnification tightening up of insurance language on the part of amoresco further performance assurances in terms of a letter of credit or a bond that would start uh year 15 sort of the towards the end of I did the period But I think I mentioned default tightening up a default rights in what? A lender or financing company would be responsible for in terms of operation I think I mentioned transfer rights adding some clarification about How a appraiser would be sought if there was to be any termination in the lease pursued And then actually Pursuing a tighter or better look for us in terms of changes to net metering credits as opposed to just the elimination of net metering credits I think I think that's okay gets followed. Thank you. Do you um so so this You know from my view We're making about a hundred thousand dollars a year and this as the current plan is laid out right in um, I don't I mean none of us can see in the future. We don't know whether the Electricity costs are going to go up or down or whatever is going to happen there or whether net metering is going to improve or or degrade but the The income of a hundred thousand dollars a year requires us to assume essentially the The lease on the equipment right liability for the lease on the equipment if we want to Change or change the deal or leave the deal. Yes, so we have a we start out with roughly a four million dollar liability That amortizes down to zero after 20 years so would you Would you invest four million dollars in something to get a hundred thousand dollars a year? It put in those terms. I I don't think I would but I I don't think that's necessarily the exact situation that we're looking at It's not the exact but we have that liability liability for That amount of return And I'm just asking the question whether you really think it's a good investment Well, I think it's a good investment because I think the chance the risk or the liability of us needing to Within the first five 10 15 years of this deal to even pursue termination is very low Okay Thank you Okay, is there any other any other questions from the manager? Um Would anybody like to make a motion on whether the finance committee supports the project? Okay, so motion has been made and seconded to support these project any further discussion Okay, all those in favor, please say uh, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Opposed. Okay. All those in favor, please raise your hand 13 Opposed one two three four five We seem to have a 13 to five Okay, so the finance committee, uh Okay, so the finance committee is voted to support the uh, uh solar panel project and uh Thank you for your efforts to get it. Thank you for getting back to us with the information My pleasure. Thank you. Okay. The rest of the uh, we've got The school budget to vote on because we never did vote on that Minuteman's done and then we have the insurance and water and sewer Um to the manager you're welcome to hang around or you can head home to your family at your leisure Do you prefer I stay all right? It's up to you. I don't think you need to Uh, Paul Sure See, I gave you a chance to get out the door, you know, you just you can't hesitate I thought I heard some news report that the governor is trying to get us some money for To pay for the snow Either the removal or fix the potholes or something So he has released, uh, 30 million dollars and I guess you call it extra chapter 90 or they're calling Rapid assistance program the wrap program For potholes and that equates to a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars and change For our own thing. So we have to access and spend that money by june 30th So Mike Rademacher is already putting together a plan. There was already a pothole plan put together We'll now be able to use some of those other resources for just otherwise annual maintenance and road repair And we can put some more media stuff on those funds and and if people know of potholes, they should get on the Town website. Yes. Yes. What we're doing Right now is complaint response Uh, and then once we get through that, we're going to go snow root by snow room and systematically fill the potholes Thank you It could do give us any Hidden information you got on the new guy deal Yeah, I I'll I'll tell you what I what I know that, uh, oak tree development Is proposing a 219 development on what I guess could be described as the uplands within the new guy property It would be 12 townhomes and then two multi unit buildings making up the remaining 207 units They would use just about seven acres of the property The total property is about 17 17.7 acres And then their intention would be to either gift or conserve the remaining 10 and a half acres Which are predominantly the wetlands on the site They are uh, they are claiming to have performed a great deal of hydrology engineering and work that would Call them any flooding concerns. I don't think the town Yet the degrees are that or is comfortable with that They're also pursuing work with mass dot In terms of getting highway access off of the lake street exit directly into this proposed development Uh, and it would it would also be it would be a 40 b development. Yeah, uh, so it would have a 25 percent affordable That's about 55 How close are we on 40 b? Do you know up here? So there's two ways to look at 40 b There's percentage of units or percentage of landmass. Yeah, we're not very close in terms of percentage of units We're at 5.6 percent. We've got about I think we're at 878 units short In terms of units percentage of landmass you can demonstrate that You have 1.5 percent of your landmass which has affordable housing units on that We are very close if not at that one and a half percent Based on where it's been done over the past couple years of the housing corporation and whatnot So that we feel we feel very comfortable with the housing affordable housing efforts in the town and fighting for We have to go to to sort of qualify for that So it's a bit as I understand it. It's a bit mysterious where the 10 percent Unit equation is a very clear-cut matter in the eyes of the state Whereas the one and a half percent equation is a bit to use the words of some others a bit mysterious mystical and how you Prove or demonstrate that so the group that we would ultimately have to approve it Prove it to if you get to that point we'd be the housing appeals committee which here is 40d application There's no age limit on this unit not that they've mentioned.  Okay. There are any other questions for the manager on any general issues Okay, then thank you very much for coming. We appreciate your time and Uh, your good service to the town and uh, we'll see you on April 13th. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Oh, by the way, um, do you hand this out to everybody? Yeah, okay This is the four page. It you saw it in the Arlington advocate Um, originally we were this was going to go out with the tax bills, but something with postage Something to do with the size of the envelope Yeah So this goes out to the public as much as we can, you know the manager and the treasurer And other people are fit as much as they can on four pages and One of the things that I've often said that government does a lousy job on and I'm talking local state federal Is telling people how they spend their money So this is a small attempt to try to to try to do some of that. So Farrell, I don't think from my slip phone Okay, thank you. Good night. Good night. Good night. Good night. Thank you. Um Budgets school budget, um we all had lots of discussion on that um the proposed Town appropriation for fiscal 16 I got it here 59 million. Okay. Now that's that's the budget. We only vote the appropriation Right So it's 53 million Yeah, yeah 53 million five seven four one 14 Let me make sure that's Check this last time, but 53 five seven four one 14. Yeah, so That is the town's appropriation the rest of it obviously comes from grants and revolving funds and all of that so Got a motion on the school budget to move Second. Okay. Okay. So motion has been made in second for 53 million five seven four One 14. Is there any discussion? So a couple follow-up items from our meeting tonight. We did throw some questions that I went back and asked. Stephen asked a question that And that when Diane and Kathy were talking about the facilities department their view of the facility department versus Andrews in terms of budgetary authority appropriation. There was some Conflict where Andrew talked about gray billing in the school, maintained the budget and the school department talked about Um transferring the money over So As a short answer Andrew Andrew Diane both recognize that that is an area that they have to hash out. They don't have any conflict with one another over and they're Confident by the time they're back here next year to actually have a FY 17 budget that they'll they'll have it in place But their point was they've got a working way to do it in 2016. So it's not a an issue for right now the second one was um there was some The administrative position they had mentioned the school department had mentioned the administrative position How many of the presentation didn't mention the administrative position? It's another area that they're trying to work out The town doesn't feel at this moment that they're convinced that they need to add the position Or either side really because I guess most of the work as I understand are three quarters of work Let's say it's being done by a school department person. So the money right now is in the school department It's going to stay in the school department If they get to the point over the summer time where they feel like they Die of the position they will it looks like they're not going to so the money will just be retained in the school department budget until um at least FY 17 Okay, is there any other discussion charlie? Yes I'm continued and continuing to be or I am Yet again very um concerned about the school budget and the way they have approached it the Several years ago the school department requested that the special education rate of growth Go from three and a half percent to seven percent because this was quote unquote the long-term trend Um as an aside In the past the school department had promised to bring us A rolling history and 10 year old history on the special education costs and They brought one last year then they disavowed it and they did not bring one this year and I made a request of Diane johnson for one they haven't haven't yet received it but what's happened in the last couple of years is that the special education costs have not risen at seven percent a year in the school department has just taken that Money that did not go into special education has put it into general education Now I'm not talking about Nichols and dimes here in if you look on in this presentation that they gave us last week On page 27 In the far right hand column they talk about the fiscal year 16 budget without a contract settlement in the top line Is the Top line is the is the base that 15 943 127 is the amount of money that they expect To spend on special education The next line is the Unquote unquote the town appropriation for special education based on the seven percent metric And the difference is one million five hundred and fifty eight thousand three hundred twenty eight dollars Now superintendent bode made a You know a great deal of comment that this doesn't include the contract settlements And there's going to be a contract settlement that has to be dealt with etc But if you assume that the entire 15,943,127 dollars was Labor and it's not a lot of it is outside expenses But if you assume that was all labor And and and and there was a you know arms length negotiation Um the collective bargaining and they got a three percent raise Then that would be roughly 500 a little bit over five hundred thousand dollars So that would eat up about five hundred thousand dollars of that one million five hundred fifty eight thousand dollars So there's a million dollars there that's on account for and that's what I was asking about the other night That million dollars is not going into special education. It's not going into the special education reserve fund It's being spent broadly on the general education side So what we're dealing with is the general education side Is going up three and a half percent now if you I'm just sort of doing this from memory, but I think the um the general education Plus the Let's say this the whole budget less special education comes out to somewhere around 34 million dollars One million dollars is another three percent increase So we're talking about building up the the spending level On the general education side by six and a half percent not three and a half percent And meanwhile the town side is cutting their budget in order to Hold off the time when we're going to need to have an override And and what the school is doing is they're increasing their base during this time pushing this closer to an override And I think they're paying playing footloose and fancy free with the taxpayers money Contrary to to the to the Five-year plan or long-range plan and to the And the long-range planning committee went to this seven percent and three and a half percent to accommodate What they argue is their high cost of special education Due to outside, you know, the people moving in from utah that are coming to uh arlington to get the special education benefits Now the fact is I went through that special education budget last year and I had lengthy discussions with with with dean about this and um The special education budget is not being driven by outside costs It's being driven by out of control spending inside the arlington school system Consultants all you know all sorts of things that they that they spend money on and haven't projected in first place So I'm against the school budget and I'm going to make a substitute motion That we reduce the school budget by one million dollars because that money From the special education budget is not being used in special education It's supposed to be used in special education If they do have an overrun this year in special education It's not reserved the money's being spent someplace else and they wouldn't answer the question the other night Fiscal 13 was up 3.42 percent Fiscal 14 was up 11.74 percent Fiscal 15, of course that's still going was up 3.3 percent and it and it seems to me that As long as the average for 10 years, which I think is what long term planning was looking at Is a 7 percent then Uh, it it seems what they're doing is reasonable because when it goes up 12 percent And they've only budgeted seven percent Then they've got to reach into the general education and pull money out of general education to fund the special ed and In those times when they project, it's going to be below seven percent They're in effect taking like Charlie said taking money from special ed and helping the general ed But overall over a period of time it balances out to about 7 percent Four-year average here was 7.7 to five-year averages is 6.87 So I think the budget is is is reasonable and we should support it I think it was john deis though made a suggestion last night And if i'm giving you a credit i'll take it away later, you know That I had a long talk with the superintendent today Is that maybe what they should be doing is I'm sort of arguing what against myself, but I did the other night is in the special ed budget Figure out what they project. It's going ahead and then have another line item right in the budget that says special ed reserve X dollars to bring the whole thing up to seven percent and then if the If the money's less than seven percent they could move that into this special education stabilization fund, but And so I suggested that for next year they might want to consider doing that and sort of take this whole issue off the table, but Like I said, it's some years they're take they take from A lot of years they take from general ed to give the special ed and then in some years they Sort of pay it back by giving more from special ed and the general ed Over a period of time. It seems to balance out To the seven percent. So that's my two cents, uh, right You I think you have the right idea except for one problem and That charlie's pointing out and that is that they're spending that money so they don't have it And what I see is the problem is Two three years down the road. You're getting more kids and more kids and more kids growing And all of a sudden you get a van load of kids from some other state. I'm not going to blame utah And there really is a problem If they take that money that's been growing exponentially that's now in the general education budget Which it's over three or four years could be four million five million dollars And they don't have it They're going to get whipsawed on both sides If one number on a one year on a one year that's not necessarily a huge problem, but if it goes on That becomes a problem if they took that seven percent and they had a high percent Increased so they take that two percent put it in their little reserve fund And the following year they put in the reserve fund and don't spend it then they don't have that problem Well, if and that's what they're trying to do Um, but they're not but but they have to pay their bills special. It has to be paid So halfway through the year if if if they've got two of the kids come in from utah They have to go into the budgets pull money out of Items and spend it on special ed because not having money is not an excuse not to Meet me I understand that that's what I'm saying. I think they're going to whipsaw both sides They're going to get whipsawed on the general ed which is growing and they're going to get whipsawed on the sped Which is growing, you know, and that year that it happens Okay, how on the john I was thinking a little more about my analogy of unpredictable snow snow nice expenditures and uh, when When the dpw gets an emergency expense, whether it's snow or ice or big water main blows up or something They have projects they can defer they can say we won't pave gray street this year We'll pay it pay it next year on the other hand if they have lower than expected expenditures They have plenty of projects in the queue to build some more sidewalks or things that are going to happen Anyway, they can adjust the timing. I don't know if the school budget has those sort of projects that they can You know defer or not sort of capitals of if if they had a surplus in the unpredictable part of their budget Which they could invest Today to defer a future cost the way dpw can then it would be you know, it would be a way to sort of smooth things out But if they're taking that surplus and hiring teachers or starting programs that have long-term obligations even pensions Long-term obligations then it's Then that's when you get the double whips out. There's no there's nothing to cut. It makes it much more difficult to cut back and my question is Is there would there be a problem? If there's if the special ed reserve fund wasn't there it was too loud If they would come to the finance committee, it was money in the reserve fund To handle that on a short-term basis Well, the reserve fund is the town's reserve fund And we always said it would be available to the schools in the whole town The first thing I'd be looking for is for the school department to go to their own reserves. Yeah, yeah, which are substantial and what if they were insufficient well, that that is the The town's reserve fund our fund. That's not our fund. It's the town's fund. And then if that doesn't work Special town meeting the vote money from free cash right if If say in the extreme you combined the special ed reserve fund You took the money from the special ed standardization fund and put it in our reserve fund It sort of sequestered it as being available for a special emergency Wouldn't that be essentially the same situation but with more flexibility because it would only be the finance committee in that town meeting So you could respond Yeah, but there were the problem with the town's reserve fund is it at the end on June 30th It disappears and they want to use the stabilization fund because it doesn't disappear. It continues And it's transparent. I mean that's what they want to do So it has to be recommendation with the long-term planning to many committee to make sure that the reserve fund appropriation Every year was sufficient to cover You know any reasonable I don't want to show you we've been increasing it You know, I mean increase it even more to cover a special ed emergency um John did you have them? Yeah, um I continue to be frustrated by Well frustrated at the wrong number concerned about the 7% year on year on year And if you look at this chart it's really Rather amazing that special education is now Maybe a third of the whole budget or something like that um Does anybody have any idea What it looks like in other school systems No, I think I asked that question last time and I think we didn't get this specific answer because Siemensen Lexington might be Higher than us whereas the bellman is lower And they see when they get to examples because that's I want you to find out because I'm not really sure that I want to see the special education budget keep going compared to the general educations And I don't want to pull the money away from the general education to the special education But that is what's happening. Yeah, that and that is what it is. That's clearly what's happening if we continue Yeah It's it's it's unsustainable as healthcare used to be unsustainable so I mean you're a minute man there 40 I think you're 45 percent Stephen. Yeah for for special ed. It depends on the community um You know social economic base that type Do we have any Every community has this problem And every community is by the way the community that everyone in the world goes to get special education services Every superintendents has the same speech to them. Yeah, it's been in school community everyone Yeah, they they used a collaborative to try to help They set up the programs that they have Some kids go to what they say it talk more about it to say the truth. You know about the situation I mean it's clear that it's clear the biggest problem they have They know that And if the I mean the average has come down a bit recently, but it was at like 12 percent jump to do you Also I'd really like to know if we can be sure that it's being done as well as properly as it should be I think Charlie was next. Yeah, I just wanted to say that The outside education costs the outside education costs while they have a variance and they do have an unpredictable characteristic to them They've actually been dropping Okay, the overruns in the special education department have been internally primarily internally generated And in last year and now again this year they're forecasting Well under the seven percent and they're putting that they're not saving that money. It's not going into reserve It's not going into the stabilization fund. They're spending it somewhere else So that's going to increase the face of the of the general education And and if there's a problem in the special education, they're they don't have it Unless they have they may have money squirreled away someplace else. They haven't told us about but but they don't it's not It's not your mark for special education carolyn That we create some sort of regulation for them so that They must put the money into their stag list Can't do it We could we could recommend in other words, for example, you know what I I try I suggested to the superintendent that you know from now on just put a seven percent reserve You know in the special education budget and now the day after town meeting passes the budget The school committee can shift everything around however they want That's there's nothing we can do about that But all we vote is the bottom line Even the five line items that alan puts in the budget Is really sort of irrelevant. It's only the bottom line that we actually actually vote dick Example of special ed in fiscal 14. They had an 800 thousand dollar overrun in special ed They had to draw out of their general Funds that's that's the point where it went. Yeah Well 12 percent that wouldn't you know if you ever if you ever see the bills see we get from The outside vendors that they send these kids out to You knock your socks right off. You couldn't believe it Also, another special ed if they had to add Was a social worker and had to school They had had to add psychology Unbelievable what these kids come to school with the problems And that the schools are acting as mothers and fathers and doctors and To all these kids and this is where a lot of it is right there Okay, um carol. I'm sorry carol. Did I cut you off? I guess I would Against the budget and my recommendation is that we do if we really want them to change things in the long line Because unless we send a message that says you need to be more Fiscally transparent about where this money is going Then as you said the committee can do whatever they want and they will do whatever they want, but But they they are being transparent where the money is going. I mean it's all there in the in the budget We're being more fiscally responsible Okay, uh, tom The other night I was I was thinking about when we got home with charlie said and I got out of this was The three and a half percent four percent that they didn't think they were going to use a special ed that they would throw it into the sped Or the or the general education I'm not getting a good feeling are they thrown it into the general education are they moving it somewhere else That isn't you know, would it be administration or something? I just Didn't get that good feeling Because if they're looking to take money to my opinion if I was looking to take money to put it back into my reserve fund I would just come out and say guys I get a zero reserve fund We got to put money back in and just I'm gonna do it. They came from the rear And it just didn't seem but I think I feel maybe a little like charlie that I don't think it's going where they say it's going It's moving past general education. It may be moving up up the floor That's always good I know I have to the family that moved out of arlington because of problems with the funding and structure of special education in arlington Uh, I would have done that if if my roots weren't so great here. So Arlington is not a town known for great, you know, shining special ed services. In fact, you know, we had a state review a couple years ago They identified a lot of problems and a lot of the internal budget that's been built up Is for team chairs social workers psychologists that were missing in arlington that everybody else Not everybody else, but every other, you know, other towns do have that the state required us to add so We shouldn't worry about that seven percent increase that we see every year Arlington is approaching this in a more transparent manner than other towns Other towns don't have this discussion with this special separate ed regular ed budget their education budget goes up five percent a year just like ours Ours on a blended average is five percent a year except three and a half Seven percent if you look at other districts around us, they're going up five percent a year because Special ed is driving the cost. They're just not talking about it So it's an issue that everybody's facing and it's not unique to arlington and we're being more transparent about it so the other thing I wanted to say is that when you talk to younger parents to People that have kids in schools is a huge demand for more services. They want those social workers They want the Petition going around town for longer art classes and there's a lot of demand for things that We as a town aren't giving people You know and the school committee is facing those pressures every day They're going to spend every single cent we give them You know, they're trying to be responsible at the end of the year if they have money left over They'll put it into the special ed reserve, but they they're facing strong demands And and the only limit on them is what's in the long-range plan? And that's what everybody has agreed to everybody's agreed to this long-range plan So maybe next year long-range planning committee can look at this issue and and you know your recommendation allen to To hold the special ed funds in a reserve and not let them spend it on something else Is something that can be discussed? But also discussed with along along with that is responding to these demands for for a better education in Arlington So I think you know, we talked a lot about let's push your right out Let's push your right out I've talked to dozens of people that would go to the mat for an override tomorrow To get those art classes and that better education So, you know, I think we have somewhere on this committee somewhat of a biased view But what's happening in town and what our what our citizens want that I support the budget I do Any hygiene So I am going to vote for the budget. I just bought the budget. I'm going to ask maybe even beg that you vote to support the budget We've talked about special you remember and I said this the last time School department is facing three pressures. They're facing special ed pressure Facing the regular increases and they're also Facing this large enrollment, you know, we sort of pass it off But what we have to remember is that 170 Net kids come into the district This year, they didn't get a dime not a dime for those children this year They're going to get the money one year in arrears They're going to get the money next year to deal with the kids that showed up this year The problem is another 170 kids are going to show up next year. They're going to have the money to deal with those So Are they doing their best with the budget? They are and I think they're doing what and I've said this before We've had this similar discussion They're being held accountable in the way that we always say they need that they should be which is in special ed If it goes up 12 percent We don't give them another dime if it went up 12 percent for five straight years We're not going to give them another dime. They're going to have to manage it So when it's under in these years We can't just start to start hammering away at them and demanding that they put things into special ed funds They do this and they do that because if you're going to put all the handcuffs on them when it's under Minute it flips you've got to be willing to help them out that way and I don't think we want to do it When it flips flips the other way um and the last thing is you know I think when it does regard I think I spent a lot of time last year after um after we talked about special ed last year and I know that um Brian dick and I had a meeting with uh with the school committee and we went over some of the different things And I talked to the cfo and the superintendent throughout the year about it They they have a lot a lot of their pressures internally because jolly talks a lot about the internal pressures on special ed So like let alluded to a lot of these are state mandated a lot of these are Are our mandates, you know when you look at the process of from the time of parent in today's In regulatory environment from the time of parent requests You know what evaluation for their child to the day it has to be delivered is 45 days There's no if there's no am there's no judgment you have to go and there are a lot of regulatory things That they have to deal with and I think they're trying to deal with it And I think they're trying to deal with it the best That they can I don't think there's You know, I wish I could say that there was a a magic bullet or there was a way to control it or things like that um And I think the difficult thing is you sort of say you know like john say you feel like they're these unfundated mandates and they're these things that they're um That they're doing and things like that and so the last thing was probably the most unpolitically correcting I might have ever shed at this finance committee, but I'm going to say it here because it's the truth The error of being able to pass a kid through the public school system for 12 years and have them go get a job at a factory at Raytheon and waltham and work there for 40 years and retire with a pension is gone They need an employable skill. They need to be brought up But I think that's the challenge of the modern day public school system It's how do you get these children educated and into being productive members of society With the skill with the job and go there and we're not talking about the The top five percent that go to a nice fine ivy league university We're talking about the 10 percent of kids who struggle through college, you know Who really need that extra attention and learning and things like that so they are placed I think that's where a lot of times the special education resources are going is to prepare those children Who we all know have to be equipped for jobs You know to get there, so i'm going to vote to support it. I think that everybody Elsevotes is supported and that's it. Thanks Okay Not takes much time, but confused about the external versus internal i'm always under the impression that it's the Shipping the out external to the system is the most expensive And the charlie indicates it's really the internal charlie and dean Can ask them to share What outside of consultants being the most expensive internal? And sharing it having to read through it. What were the other higher high internal cost try? Yeah, I just like to say that the external cost this is from this is from the report that Diane johnson gave us last year where she failed the update and gave us this year Okay, but the the x the total tuition meaning the outside payments that they make costs Over over nine years grew at 4.5 percent and over the last five years grew at 2.1 percent Okay, then one year 2014 there was a 17 percent increase But in the in the other years they were they were it was flat or went down Okay The on the other hand if you look at the internal instructional services Supervisory went up 19 percent teaching went up six seven percent a compound. This is compounded Guidance went up 16 16 psychological went up 56 percent I mean Those are those are where the big growth numbers are inside so that you know the utah kids i'm not driving these things So There's a strange really strange relationship that we're actually By reducing the external costs. We're actually saving something out of the budget That's what I kind of heard there. We're actually by reducing it says this weird thing But but we're also increasing the internal costs. Would it actually be cheaper? More economic to ship them extra to say we can't No, it's a lot more. No, well 60 to 80,000 a kid right that was my understanding plus transportation plus transportation to the 20 No, and according to my my calculation from her sheets the compound growth rate over the last nine years was 7.4 percent Over the last five years was 5.5 percent of everything So the so the annual growth rate is dropping and that's why they have this surplus this year Which they're spending somewhere else in I mean I'm for I mean, I think they should be managing this institution which takes up More than 50 percent of the town taxpayers money with in a in a transparent and uh highly focused manner, okay And and saying that they're going to they're going to call the seven percent For special education revenue and then put it into something else is misleading to the finance committee to the town meeting to the taxpayers It's it's it's mismanagement for my Anyway Give a lot of thought to what charlie said the other night indian i go back to What the commitment was in the the overrides over the years ago? And so one of the commitments is town school operating budgets are capped at three percent three and a half percent per year And then the additional allowance of up to seven percent Shall be allowed for documented special ed cost increases So the budget that we got we're talking about Pressures on special education But the budget we received had a 1.6 percent increase in special ed for next year. So to charlie's point Seven percent less the 1.6 is going somewhere else. So I would rather see the school department come in here and say look Special ed is down next year, but we have compelling needs Elsewhere and that's where it's going to go And that's why we want you to vote this hybrid of seven percent on special ed plus plus the amount on general ed And we didn't hear that and charlie asked the question Where are you spending the money if you're not spent increasing special ed by seven percent? we never got an answer and again I gave three kids two kids still presently in the public schools I've been a big advocate of the public schools, but i'm disappointed That we're not getting those answers So the question is as a committee if if we vote for the budget what we're really saying is We know you're not spending seven percent. We know you have undocumented increases next year for seven percent But we think that that you've made a compelling case for the rest of your budget And if that's what people want to vote then go ahead and vote. It's not the commitment that we made It's certainly not what we were told and I think you know we deserve better In terms of where the money is being spent so To the extent that we say special ed costs are out of control when it that's not the issue for next year the issue for next year is What's being planned is less than the seven percent so I'm probably going to support the number but I also Think we get into a really bad habit on this committee and over the years of Asking questions and saying can you come back next year or can you come back next week? And we won't receive anything Until next march when they're in here again So I'd like to bring them back in and and and you know tell us tell us what's going on We can vote the budget on but let's get some answers and and and you know, let's set a date and if we don't get the answers Let let's get it out there that we're not satisfied with what we're receiving and Charlie asked for the 10 years in special ed. We want to know where the the difference between the seven percent And the 1.6 is going And I'd still love to get my revenue numbers, but I I think If we don't do something and send a message We'll be back here next march 20th or march 18th and and it'll be the same problem And there won't there will not have been enough time to prepare answers for us before our meeting and we'll go another year So that's So just know what you're voting on Okay, john I'm glad you said that was about the Yes, the same thing. Let me ask him to come back in but I'd like to point something else out And that's that the things that charlie many of the things that charlie talked about that were increasing in cost Where the kinds of things that were addressed fairly successfully a few years ago by a y cc. These are all counseling kinds of things For which a y cc now bills insurance So a y cc is paying its way now didn't used to we used to subsidize it, you know 100 150 000 200 000 a year That's not true anymore. So I'd like to know whether or not They are they are addressing that whole business In a way that's appropriate given that we have something like a y cc here that can provide counseling to students for example So I I strongly support what steve says and maybe what we should do maybe the way we do that is To suggest we vote the budget down and say we want you to come back in and justify things Oh, doesn't a y cc get some of its money from the schools? Yes, but maybe they ought to look At what a y cc might be able to do in the context of all these costs down and Success a y cc has had in building insurance companies with some of that money If you take it really look at your special ed budget You're going to see What they have done is they've tried to take they have saved money By not sending kids out of out of town And they built it in town their own special ed department The services kids including special language teachers math teachers There are helpers for these kids reading And That is that's all up in here and The they've tried to bring kids back in to save money and they've done it and and I don't see I see it like last year they spent 10 million basically 10 million 10 million dollars They've they've promised they've promised a year after year. They're going to come back and talk about that. They didn't talk about it Very much at all this year in my opinion All right, I'd like if that's true. I'd like to hear about it from them Did you read there exactly how the money they're spending the money in in here? Yeah, yeah, I mean Not in the detail level that you probably have but I have looked at it. Yeah Okay, Paul I was just thinking what the same lies that John was mentioning that We have the option of Voting a lower number tonight and asking them to come back April 13th and convince us to vote a higher number fun I mean, I I think that's what our subcommittee was supposed to be doing So, I mean, I realize that we're a full committee and it's our prerogative to go back and Ask for more information and delay the budget But I mean we've had this budget since February 12th And if people had concerns they could have been communicated to our subcommittee Which could have gotten answers So again, I people are asking really good questions and it's good discussion to be had But for our relationship with with the school committee I mean, I think this this type of this type of thing the question some of the questions that were asked As sort of it in a gotcha way just breaks down the relationship and builds distrust And that's why when you ask a question, you don't get an honest answer because They feel like they're in a gotcha situation and they shouldn't they should be more open about it The correct answer the correct answer the question was well, yes, it's the same thing as last year We think we have a lower we're projecting lower special ed increases So we're able to meet some of the other needs as a result of those 170 students So we're putting them any somewhere else They didn't say that because they thought they were getting a gotcha question And they they knew that the response they were concerned the response was going to be about 7 7 has to be in special special ed so From a relationship perspective, I think some of the the suggestions are not going to be helpful It's just going to to deteriorate the relationship when we had a subpoena Working on this for a couple months now I don't have any any answers to this, but I think it's sort of I sit back here and I say We presented budgets my own committees And in that budget we presented we said we're going to less this Manager Take money and pot a And if he has old discretion shift at the pot B if he wants And if we could buy any budgets like that, they would be all over us Yet we see don't want to make an exception for the School committee that they don't have to put if they say special ed gets this x amount of money Well, but don't use all up. We can use it elsewhere. No one else in the town can do that You know, it's uh, you know state law says town meeting has controlled the bottom line. I realize that So I don't think there's any um Once town meeting votes the bottom line they could do with what what I'm talking about the shifting process They mean no one else granted the state law that that they can do it Because they say as such that they can do it and the others cannot do it It sort of bothers me Okay And I can assure you that they're that managers are shifting monies as they need to during the course of the year They do that and so and so that's actually an interesting argument for allowing the school to do it Well, I mean what I would say about shifting and I actually just pulled up one budget I pulled up the planning budget, right So I'm just going to read this from 13 to 60 in the budget one three 35 to 341 to 402 To 416 so if you look at 341 to 402 That's more than two and a half percent. It's all right. So if we're going to be militant We got to go cut that budget because that went over two and a half percent But we're not going to do that because what we said is hey wait a second As long as adam comes in at two and a half percent He can do pretty much whatever he wants within his budgets as long as he delivers these two and a half percent And I think where we've gone down a path here is we're saying time out School department we give that courtesy to the manager. Well, you don't get that courtesy Your ability to manage your own money is suddenly under question And we're saying we want a rigid silo in all sorts of places And it just it doesn't work like that. I think one of the challenges we also have to remember and I was when I talked to the school department Throughout the year We we voted as a budget as one school budget But it's not really that right because they have a utility budget On our I mean if we were to map it out in comparison to the town It would have to be like 15 10 different budgets We have to have a we'd have to have an administration because police we have an administrative police administration budget We have the you know the patrolmen We have some stuff over here with some stuff for there. I mean that's the same thing with the school department They have these different things and the special ed the most You know painstaking one. Yeah, but there's just there's stuff here and there and the example I gave it the when we did the minutes is It's funny they talked in the meeting about special ed being Down in the air wasn't if you go take the budget we got last year It was 3.3 it was like 3,020,000 you take the projection now it's at 3,120,000 where their savings came from wasn't special ed It came from the utilities being down They sent it later on the in the in their presentation if you had caught it And that's how they're putting money into the reserve fund And so I mean it's a lot of ways like like like that And I would also point out if you're in the same Rigid line is I can almost assure you that adam's going to be standing before us at our last meeting of the year in june Shifting money all sorts of places back and forth between departments to get to a balance And if we want to take a line we should say no Don't do that go over budget special town meeting We'll go fix your budget we would never do that. And so I think we're we got to be a little fair Okay, uh right I didn't really want to get into shifting budgets, but That's just not even in none of this is even an issue the state law set it up They're allowed to do it every school system in this in the state does it it's a not it's not an issue The only thing we really have on our plate right now is approving this budget Steve had a question about bringing them in to discuss what's going on Um as I said before Personally, I think they should be putting them up the X The X has finished going for reserve funds. They have the right to do whatever they want I think it really comes down to the deal that they made with the town Okay, and are they going is that just the cash they get and that just means they can have it But later on if something blows up You know that they got live with that and we you know, we you know, it's our town It's our school system. We own all of it collectively um I think I'm going to support the budget. I just wish that they Would be a little bit more have more foresight with the extra revenues rather than just okay. We have what we can spend And oh by the way and the answer to your question It's already they're spending the money in the budget and they gave us that in february So if you I'm not directing strictly to you, but they gave us all that information and You know, it's up to us to do whatever we want with it Okay Uh, you know, I think we need to wrap this up so we could we can get through it Could I have a comment David? I've kind of waited If everybody had a turn, uh, I don't I'm not going to Put any more light on on this dilemma that we have But as a member of the school committee for 15 years I felt like I was sitting at a 15-year school committee meeting tonight The issue of special education the cost of special education the planning of education Has been a dilemma in the state of massachusetts for years It's a mandated program that the state had given to the cities and towns With not a lot of money backing it up The cost of the program is phenomenal At different times through different periods of time They decided well if the cost of sending students out on a special ed program was too costly Let's try and bring them back for as an inclusion But when we bring them back as an inclusion, we have to add this we have to have Assistance we have to have special wheelchairs may be a special accommodations For in a classroom That fact develops another cost item Sending them out Was the transportation cost of sending them out of the out of the to say the We're talking about the town the town of alecton. We had no control over whatsoever The state sets that rate and normally that rate is set sometime after all the budgets are set right So this issue of special ed in the cost of that has been around My 15 years in the school committee and I've been off the school committee for 12 years Having said that I would have much rather have a presentation from the school department that didn't leave us with With this dilemma of the presentation One person might say well, I was I was waiting to have the the rug pulled from underneath me. I don't think so I think when you come in You better serve a committee like this Present the full The full facts of your budget What I Sit back and say I think the superintendent of schools should add more add more to the conversation Listening to the chief financial officer To me the lady knows what she's talking about but it's To me, it's how it's presented which in turn Develops a conflict Your right steed I don't think we we got our answers to our questions. The challenge questions I don't know calling them back would serve any further purpose What I think should be done is it should be discussed at town meeting among the full the legislative body I sit here and i'm torn between I understand what charlie's saying. I agree with charlie's saying I agree with some of what you've said Not all of it because when I was first on the school committee Yes, there was many people coming back to the town of valentine for what special that offered for the people in the town of valentine It has since changed a little bit, but they were coming back no question about it and that pushed up special ed The cost of special ed, but it's a phenomenal cost and I predict at some point special ed is going to over will be more money than than the general ed because Everybody is entitled to an educational plan and the educational plan is special ed In some degree or some form of fashion. That's why you have them all In one town we cut back on school psychologists We cut back on all of the things that we've now had to put back in over a period of time So it goes around and around And I like I said, I felt like I was sitting at a 15-year school committee meeting Without even true answers. So that's my little I want to say but Again, I think in presenting to us us the finance committee not a school committee I think their presentation We weren't looking anything, but what we're trying to do is we're trying to say everything is in balance Everything is um transparent And everything is okay. Now again, I'm not Any good management Management has to have a certain set of funds put aside for the unexpected. That's to me is good management but say that but You know if you've got X amount of dollars and you keep on saying well, it's going to be for pay raises. It's going to be for pay raises. It's going to be for pay raises I don't think so Or else it's going to be a heck of a pay raise So that's my end of my little Thank you for listening to the person. Okay. Okay, just uh Try to wrap this up I don't think the problem was in the numbers that were presented You had we had the numbers like two or three weeks ago Um, and we have a subcommittee that people could have funneled questions through Uh, they came to us five six seven eight years ago Didn't matter what superintendent was and the plan was to build up the interior special education programs So that they parents would want to send their kids and keep them in town As opposed to sending them to carol school and Lincoln for $80,000 a year plus transportation. So, you know, if they were successful Then the out of district would Go down or maybe level And the in district would go up. So, you know, that doesn't bother me That's what they said they were going to do and that caused at least the last couple this year And maybe next year To to be below this the seven percent um, unfortunately Some people are not terribly articulate in in answering questions and I think that was one of the problems That was one of the problems the other night or one day night I think all the numbers were there. I think they were transparent if they weren't going to be transparent They'd say okay, we're going to have a problem. Let's build up the special ed budgets up to seven percent You know with the size of the budget they have they probably could have done that Uh, but they didn't I mean they said this is what we think we're going to do three and a half percent and And again, if you look at the last 10 years it's been up and down And most parents have been complaining they're taken out of the regular education to fund the special education. So Like I said, I think they could have been more articulate and clear in their verbal presentations But all the numbers are there so um Budget is now before you I'm trying to remember now from a long time ago whether it was a motion made to pass Okay, so motion's been made and seconded Okay, motion's been made Motion's been made and seconded to Approve the budget or approve the appropriation of 53 574 114 is there any further motions? Okay, so is there a second to that Okay, so We'll take the motion first To reduce the school budget by one million dollars Is there any discussion on that grant? I'd like to make an uh, yeah, the motion. Okay. Uh, okay Go ahead no action until school committee comes back and I know Want to make the motion well, that's what if you go against the budget in general Okay, he's isn't quite as harsh I think So are you making a motion to table the budget? Until the school committee comes back next monday, okay, is there a second to that motion? Okay, so let's take that first Um, if that passes the movie budget's tabled and uh, we'll invite them back next monday Okay, so all in favor of tabling the budget until he asks the school committee to come back next monday Please raise your hand five the post Okay, so that one that fails Okay Okay, you gotta raise your hand when I ask for it To abstain Okay, now the next motion is to reduce the school budget by one million dollars All those in favor of doing that, please raise your hand All opposed One two three four five six seven eight nine ten I'm saying One two three Okay, so that motion fails Now we're back to the original motion of the 53 5 14 114 All those in favor of that motion, please raise your hand One two three four five six seven eight nine ten 11 12 13 Play these numbers come on do something besides five. Okay all opposed. Please raise your hand One two three Four Abstain one Okay, the motion uh carries 13 to four with one extension uh for that amount of money I want to ask a question In not to do with the budget, but I mean there's there still are Questions with the subcommittee prefer that we send questions through them or should we send it directly to the schools? Okay, so you know questions in other words questions from the present. Exactly. Okay.   So if you have any specific questions uh, like Charlie you asked for the last 10 year plan did you get anything? I didn't see it.  Uh, we'd like to get that upgraded because like charlie said last year we got it this year. We We did um Any specific things? Go through it. We'll try to get the information and i'm sure there'll be some discussion at town meeting Okay, uh, minute man's done insurance Insurance Bill, uh, yes, so a couple days ago. I circulated a revised group health insurance budget to replace page 165 in the budget book And um, i brought up some copies if you don't have that tonight Please help me now when i'll get these around to you Now bill are you talking about the one you handed out the other night? I apologize for the very All I'm in vain to make this a little larger So our our subcommittee met with uh, karen cove moai and I wanted to just highlight a few things to begin with there were some name changes on the some of the line items For example line 5700 On the original sheet was health insurance ref uh interest And the new name is medicare penalty And down on line 5706 Um, the old name was indemnification and this is now the medicare payroll tax So the first issue i want to talk a little bit about is um, the opt-out clause in this budget proposal line 5703 and basically Any employee if an employee Of an older plan or even one in the gic Let's say harvard pilgrim or blue cross blue shield, or maybe they're in their spouses plan But they already have coverage It's actually cheaper to give them two thousand dollars a year Rather than pay the employee share of the health insurance through the town And these plans tend to run between 10 to 12 thousand dollars per year per per plan So the town actually has a significant savings with this opt-out program and One of the calculations came out to be about three quarters of the million dollars per year So one thing that I have here, uh, is about a 25 page document that we had at our perusal when we met With the human resource manager. If anybody would like the fine print Uh, I'd be very happy to send the pdf to you and you can and see the Where we got some of our results from okay bill. You said the savings from the opt-out were approximately 750 000 Is is that a gross or a net in other words? Do you have to subtract the 245 from the 750? for a net savings of five Or is the 750 a net savings? I think net savings net savings. Okay. Thank you Okay, so the next line item uh 5704 is actually the gic itself the group health Uh request this year was for 14 million 472 394 and uh, basically this includes current enrollment plus the uh fiscal year 2016 rate changes given to us By the different carriers. So there's actually 14 different plans that are involved Some of these plans went up in rates. Some of the plans went down in rate, but on average There was an increase the other factor that Resulted in an increase were anticipated new contracts And uh, there are roughly 10 individual contracts and 10 family contracts That are projected to come into being in the next year uh added to that We talked a little bit well quite a bit about education There are significant increases in the student population especially in kindergarten and one through one through six grades one through six And uh the projecting 20 teachers to be hired So that figure worked out to be about a 6.61 percent increase if you just did an enrollment snapshot Uh a year ago the same figure was a 6.9 percent increase So many of these increases are based on increases in premiums Uh Line 5709 the flexible benefit plan Uh 52448 Last year was actually 7000 and the reason for this big uh Differentiation is the reason is is that um The 45,000 was an hra administration fee Previously charged to the gic And now they have their their own line item Okay Talk a little bit about the group life insurance line 5705 One thing that's a little a little bit unique is that Every town employee has coverage for life This is a $5,000 term life policy on every employee Even after they retire and These rates actually went up 20 percent this year And couple ruling that with More retirees passing on And the town itself actually has an older work force force per se. So we anticipate more payouts in the coming years Line 5700 the medicare penalty of 18,000 No change Basically, we keep employees on after age 65 and all employees You know must go on to medicare beginning with age 65 And penalty must be paid if uh, that's not the case The top Line 5190 Talk a little bit about the offset the enterprise funds This particular line was up 19 419 Again, it's revenue in being an offset And this was charged to the ed burns arena And water and sewer department So again the total is based on current enrollment And projections and rate increases so, uh I'm good with that. I there any questions where we can Go ahead and put this up for a vote Okay, alan the gic rates been fixed are they they have That's why we have a new sheet tonight John Medicare penalty is that something that's in a union contract or something that people don't go on medicare where they could You know Is that why that happened? Yeah, the question is New way in on that Why is it that we have the the basic question is why is the we're paying a medicare penalty? Is that because People decide they want to stay on our insurance or because it's a unit contract Anybody that doesn't get medicare within three months of age 65 and they've elected that it's all the all this is negotiated with the unions Okay, and basically They were so happy to get everybody on the gic there Uh, it showed up this year on this line Um, last year it showed up one of different different lines So that's why the uh, 52,445 That figure is comprised of a 45 000 dollar administration fee imposed by the hra Okay, and then the seven thousand dollar uh difference is basically Payroll deductions set up fees set up plans administration administrative fees associated with that line That's for the cafeteria plan section 125 cafeteria plan for the employees. Yep. Okay There any other questions? Okay, do I have a motion? Second Okay, uh, so your recommendation is now have you gone through the others or we'll do those next I'll do those next. So this is just for the group health insurance The 2016 request is 15,364 582 15 million Okay, any other any other discussion? Okay, all those in favor of the 15,364 582 for a group health insurance. Please say aye. All right opposed Now Okay, so if you just flip the page to um 166, please the liability insurance This is this pretty straightforward this year unlike health group health and life The rates were fairly uh stable at least This year you can see the last three years on several of the different lines the budget amounts were the same Um One thing I want to point out the property insurance Previously previously was called indemnity. It's now property insurance premiums and These have been fixed for three years at 270,625 And uh, that's expected to increase next year when it begins a new three-year cycle. So There's a quite a bit of That discussion and dialogue on line 52 45 on workman's comp Much of it is Claims anticipated claims There are claims that were made by employees that the town went after they didn't think they were legitimate Um, so it's about a three page Three page response to That particular article That particular line Any questions? And I've seen some numbers. They really beat them down on the bills when they get in this category. Yeah Okay, are there any other are there any questions? Okay, go ahead with motion. So a little second. Okay for 995 Motion's been made in seconded any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. All right posed. Okay favorable action Any enemies? Okay, thank you bill. That's it. You're welcome. It could be a complex budget almost as complex as the next One or ensuer 175 Oh, so some handouts here. Yeah pass them around This should go quick because it's relatively straightforward this year If three things i'm passing around or Well, two things i'm passing around here One is a memo from Deputy town manager about how offsets are produced Any more questions about offsets Uh, that's what he has the memo and uh another system handouts about the presentation just to follow along And uh, we have some budget revisions to the One's in budget books. I think we're included in the gloria one Yeah Yeah, one more here if that's I've made 20 we don't have a full full 20 Everybody got things All right, so everyone has Presentation like this. Yep. Everyone has uh memo and everyone has the budget revisions Glory handed out so start on the update Three sections first we try to address unaccounted water So i've looked at section one so you're unaccounted water Some interesting stuff that became cross that thought we'd uh Get out in the open before we talk about the budgets And uh leaks Is the largest reason for unaccounted water We do an annual survey every year To identify the leaks that we don't see And uh, the leaky pair strategy is pretty much uh, you know, if it's a big leaking gets fixed first because that's the biggest impact The next largest factor in the leaks is uh older meters And uh, there's a meter replacement program mostly residential To replace all the older meetings because what's happening with the older meters is that they uh very well be undercounting the actual water used Interesting process, you know, if things get corroded it doesn't turn as fast as how it was explained to us The third component to unaccounted water, which is actually pretty much should be a constant That's the annual hydrogen flushing every year. They flush hydrants out No way of measuring that One of the things that we uh asked about is uh, well, how do we see uh And how could we measure any of this progress that we're making with our water and sewer mains and the Replacement and uh, Mike believes that uh, one of the ways to measure the progress is that uh He's measured by the NWRA assessment. Uh, it's not going up as much as in relatively speaking as much as the other town While our billable water usage has actually increased That's an interesting little parlay that we're using more billable water but relative to other towns our assessment is less So some other other little quick notes that I thought people might find interesting that I found interesting is that we do in fact Public buildings are needed for water usage Even my favorite public usage the Thompson spray park As you need to Arlington, there's nothing like that anywhere else Also found a town sewage a total sewage is also needed by the MWRA. So it's one of the ways that we can measure how much Output let's say Being being accounted for so that's the unaccounted water Anyone have any questions on the unaccounted water part? The next interesting thing that we found out was about the section two, which is the water rates and the usage So we uh found out that the conservation is uh, well, let's say not the end thing It was been a 15 20 percent increase actually i had 10 to 15 I took lens 15 to 20 because I think you take better notes Increase in billable water usage. So we're actually using more water More billable water. Was there any reason you Yeah, Mike's reason gave him was Spray park Yeah, I asked about that too because I I think some of the same usage which water we have to cut that out because I think that's great No, that's actually been improved to look let's say using a lot less Yeah, um, Mike says it's a tribute to the economy doing better and uh Overall that's that sounds right with me too interesting because Other town we're not we are using more water than other towns relatively so Yeah, yeah, we're not sure how much That that's a possibility, but it's also You know while other towns didn't have sins and brigands and they're using less water, you know, so Okay, but so we're going to wait another year to see if the trend holds But in a in the consultants report a couple of years ago a woodcock study, I think it was They recommended the raising of rates And uh partly because as we conserve We have to charge more because we're using less so it's one of those little paradox relationships, but We didn't conserve We use more So consequently Mike doesn't see any reason to raise the rates because that was originally suggested as a measure to compensate for lost revenue When in fact our revenue went up So he wants it doesn't see the reason to raise the rates I think that's Well in some ways So part of it could be the sins bring them Yeah, it's hard to attribute what the what the difference is the interesting to know if our town buildings and school buildings are using more or less Yeah, well, yeah No, but that's true that would be under that range, but it was still You know, it's it's for every amount that goes through the school or town Uh, we're not getting anybody for it. The enterprise fund, right? That's one of the things Something else might go to with all the new construction including the sims and the brigands that all the stuff going in is all You know efficiency related. It's actually using less water You know a new house will use less water than an old house. So that's another driving factor. So I'm using a lot of water We're building a lot of water So Again, the good things No, someone's going to pick up on the public building. So I mentioned that their meter All right, so uh, moving along Articles and budgets. So the good news is we've already talked about articles 26 and 27 The only comment I wanted to make on that You know, it's slow going on the sewer replacement that uh, Mike had mentioned We got about 120 miles of sewer pipe and we replaced the repair about a mile It's going to be tough to keep up with that 120 years So, okay, so, uh Without any uh further delay, let's move on to the budgets They started So was the change from your new sheets to your old sheets And by the way, I want to compliment you because when you printed them out, you can actually read the bottom lines In the shaded areas Okay But is that the basic change between the uh, the ones that we got originally used with health insurance? Yes, the only changes that health insurance Appears in two places under sewer under water Okay Yeah, essentially that's it There's a couple of other Those the only changes are revisions to the budget was printed And it's a pretty level funded budget separated to operating and debt and um I think there's a three class position A genius coordinator, uh funding was reduced And there's really no other big surprises in there, I think Talking to the big barriers other than the uh, now we also we asked about the uh Enterprise fund retained earnings gold guideline because we had um Wondered about the usage about whether we're trying to build up that fund and uh Kind of similar to some other uh, the zero funds And uh, his goal of guideline is approximately 30 percent of budget Not they are Okay, so What what is the surplus at the end of fiscal uh 14? The last fiscal year Was that so on paper it was more of an in-reality because there's things have been encumbered but not spent it's got 2.5 million I'm sorry about 2.5 million In the actual in reality It was a little bit less than that That would though it would be his adjusted Adjusted balance with 2.5 Okay, well there any questions? Well, I guess Review them of to think about the line items, but I would recommend that we vote to approve I'll go walk through each budget I'm going to recommend to vote to approve the budget as uh revised for the health benefits Okay, is there a second second, okay Do you want to say anything now anything pop up at you about the uh water and sewer offsets? No, I mean the the yeah, I mean so It was a study done by powers installment several years ago that started that Set the But a lot of restructuring In town divisions since then we switched to quarterly billing which was a big a big change Um, and they sort of made those changes on the fly so Especially with the creation of the facilities department He's and who has agreed to bring the installment back Next year to do another study to make sure that the The reimbursement rates are Correct or or are re re um reevaluated and and new ones are created Yeah, I noticed the treasurer collector's budget was offset was up substantially, but I figured that's because of the We've been in a situation last year with the Yeah, there's a second page of this thing Okay Now do you want to go budget by budget? Do we uh, so okay, so sewer Sewer collection system I recommend that we Approve the budget for 637 234 Second Now these are the uh, this is the debt service that goes through the capital budget to pay off the Bonds Okay, so the ocean's made the second aid for 637 230 Oh, you're right Everybody have a calculator printer, right? It's like out of guys and dolls. We took the numbers off the dice, right? I'm glad people understand the reference. I think it was a calculator could add up the I think the gentleman to my right is working visually on Which uh, which one? Sure The tail doesn't pay for the water that it uses Which should be part of the tax base In my mind it should be a debt part of the property tax base the usage of that it's putting it on the water and sewer bills Which are unrelated To the property Is that an issue though? I I potentially see this Because the town the town's getting resource, but the water and sewer bills paying for it Which is a you know, it's an enterprise fund and you know theoretical If there's a P&L that I mean it's sort of being built to everybody else So, you know the average taxpayer is picking up the water and sewer But it would only go that way if it was based on the value of your home Well, I understand I'm not going to tell you the whole month saying it should be in the town budget not in the water and sewer Okay, do we have a number 10 billion 399 714 I got 10402 One more number Come on guys back to TV. What's happening? Private Jack finance Well, I put the storm sewer Okay, I'll back that out I got 10402 816 Yeah Uh, I apologize. We shouldn't notice that it wasn't there. There's only one of the budgets that does have it there Well, I have 10 million 402 816 Yeah Okay close enough for government work 10 million 402 816 We have to get back down and make sure it's right Well, just when I was complimenting you on how you could read the One didn't transparent, I guess we're transparent Okay, uh, so the motions have made the second in for 10 million 402 816 Uh, any further discussion? All those in favor, can we say hi? All right Okay, no action unanimous So the easy one on storm sewer collection system because they have the total printed Three two two six two hundred twenty six thousand Yes Second Okay, any questions on storm sewer collection system? Okay, all those in favor, can we say hi? Hi Close unanimous Okay, water distribution system Okay, wow So hot off the press Our calculator came up with I would like to recommend that a total budget to approve the amount of seven million 225 177 Okay, seven million two two five one seven seven anybody else Anybody else come up with that number? Yes Yeah, okay Okay, motions are made and seconded on the water distribution system seven million 225 177 Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right. I closed unanimous So the next budget is the water sewer properties and We total at the hot off the press on this one. Thanks for your patience one million nine hundred twenty four thousand 382 One million nine two four three eight two Okay, and that's the Okay, so the first was the collection that storms Then water distribution and then properties okay, so One million nine two four three eight two motion second Okay, is there any questions? That was the reclass and water is to our property Oh, I know the reclass wouldn't that much. Okay. Is there any other Questions or discussion? Okay, motions are made and seconded for one million 924 382 while those in favor, please say aye. All right closed unanimous Okay, and the bottom is just a summary is Okay, so you had a balance at the end of fiscal 14 of approximately 2.5 million uh And looking to produce a small surplus this time You know, you know one more here water sewer enterprise Grant is this The next one's water sewer enterprise. This is the um Revenues yeah revenue tracking the um so, uh, I want to uh, I guess approve the uh Total water sewer and revenue Received this is all You know the bill will stop 19 million eight six eight four four nine second Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. All right closed unanimous Okay, thank you guys. Uh, that's That's another tough one And thank you for getting this memo on the uh offsets When everybody reads it just gets a a good sense of it because uh, you know, you you go with this a year later So it should be something that we always keep for next year, right? A power system comes in to have a dog reporting show could we actually have a meeting hasn't come talk to us because I can go to the uh Selected speaking, but I'm just saying that we benched at all of us when they come in and do I Okay, I'm sorry start again. I heard the power consultant is going to take a new review of this When they do that This committee should be I think included in that dog reporting show so because it does affect everything that's flowing through I mean just whenever it happens. It could be a year from after two years from now. Okay Uh, we keep it on your to-do list And uh, you could even actually talk to Andrew Uh and and see if If they could let us know when it's happening and those people who are Are interested in it and Have their two cents Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think That does it Now a couple of things we had a long discussion on the uh on the school budget obviously Uh A significant minority are not happy With the way it was done or I guess with the responses to it Did we'll put together a list of items on You know to present to the superintendent To try to get more information And you know, uh, you know, our learning process is not stopped Um God knows we've been doing with Minuteman for years Um, so please don't you know make a note to yourself tonight This is the issue that I really have John mentioned for example a ycc. How much is that being done? Obviously the special ed Dick could get the 10 year up to date And then but go home think of the questions you want to ask get to dick so he can go once with one list of questions And we'll get them back. We're going to be meeting not only on the 13th of april But we'll be meeting the half hour before each session and we can discuss this and You know and have them come back So, you know, I tend to do it myself. Don't let the don't let the issues go Jane before we go So I usually Want to come back to it and it's really really silly So I move that we grant the chair and vice chair the authority to fix all Clarke-Larris will say that they come across Second second Okay, any questions All those in favor we say aye. Aye opposed Okay on april 13th 7 30 here uh We got the collective bargaining if he's if he has Hopefully some if not we'll have to appropriate the money into that article for use at some other point We have the human rights Commission hopefully the select winner voting next Monday To a point The human rights commission has endorsed the proposal to have christine appointed as the human rights director I'll have the fiscal stability fund to balance that out Uh in any other fine-tuning so again I'll be sending out the finance committee report to everybody here along with john leone and the Doug hymes and the manager for comments to get back Alan's going to be sending out all of the budgets Please go over them in detail make sure and one of the always things that gets messed up You know I can police is how many people that were across Uh just because we're shifting over a year It's you got to make sure those line up correctly Um, is there any other business before the uh finance committee paul? No 15th Remember you you gave me the uh permission to adjust the fine the fiscal stability fund for any ups or downs That comes out on the 15th. I and again, I'm going to try to I'd like to have all comments back to alan and to me Say by the uh, I don't know april 7th or 8th, you know so say a week If you could go through that And I think I don't think that well charlie you're working on the capital budget Get that to gloria and uh, I think we're all set any other business Thank you all very much for your work. It's uh, very effective