Yeah. All right. Well, it's 731. Let's start the meeting. We have a quorum. This is I am Christine dash for the chair of the elected finance committee. I want to thank you all for coming. It's exciting to have an in person meeting for the first time. We had an in person hybrid meeting in last June, but we really haven't had a full visual form of in person meeting for a couple of years. And again, I appreciate everyone coming out. You know, COVID is still circulating at that would be a good team building. Attempt to meet in person. And we have a lot of new people. So I think we should, I think this is the largest incoming class of new people, certainly since I've been on the committee. And I think that's exciting.  And I guess I'll start and we'll go towards my, my right. Yeah. I'm Christine. I've been on the committee for I think around 14 years. And my main function here is I do the spreadsheets and end up in a finance committee report. So like everything that we do comes to me. My name is Charlie Foskett. I represent precinct 10. And I'm on the committee for I think around 14 years. And I represent. Yeah. Jones have been on the committee for a long time. And my main function here is I do the spreadsheets and end up in a finance committee report. So like everything that we do comes to me. I'm Charlie Foskett. I represent precinct 10. And I've been here a while also. A while. She went down precinct two. I think this will be my fourth, fourth budget. My name is Jordan Remy precinct one and I'm new to the Vencom. Jennifer sees precinct three. Hi, I'm David Ken preaching 21. I feel like I've been on this committee since I was in how old. And I'm a former town employee. So familiar. So I'm an at-large member. So this year I'm representing precinct four. This is my second year. I'm Dean. I've been on the committee since 2006. I took a two year hiatus in the middle. Or later. My. Time off. Thank you. I'm Rebecca. I'm from precinct seven. And this is my first year. My name is John Burpin. This is my first year. And I'm an at-large member. So I'm any record. I believe I've been on the finance committee for four years, which is an upgrade from being on this lecture. That I work very hard to go from that lower position. And I represented precinct 13. Now. I'm Darryl Harmer from precinct 12. I've been on. This is 2016. I guess this is your seven. My name is Tofer Hyam. That's my first year. And I represent precinct 15. I'm Tara Bradley. I'm the executive secretary. And this is my second budget season. And we have as our guinea pig. Say hi, Al. Oh, hi, Al. No. I'm Al Tosti representing precinct 17. And I've been on for a number of years. This is what you're seeing here is a sharp upgrade from prior attempts to have hybrid meeting. So Al is our guinea pig. Thank you Al for helping us test out this equipment, which really looks exciting. So it's, it's good. Thank you Tara for helping to set it up and get it all up and running. Okay, no problem. Works rather well. That's good news. And Josh Lobel just came in. They were just finishing introductions, Josh. You just introduce yourself. I'm Josh Lobel. I've lived in Arlington for many, many years. I've lived in Arlington for many, many years. I'm on town meeting. I have a background in it. More recently kind of been working in the financial area of it. I'm excited to join. Welcome to all of you new people. Everyone, but the new people.  What became our training committee. And that would be Annie and Al and Darryl. I think Tara, you worked on it. Shane, did you work on the training? Yeah. It was, it was. That's good to hear. I, I, there was the, that group I just named for the love effort into what I thought was a really, really nice training program that we recorded. So it's available for future new members. And something we can build upon. And I think that was a really big step forward in, in sort of our organizational structure and operation. So I really appreciate that work. And I also want to give a shout out to the communications working group, which is Charlie and Shane. Who greatly assisted me in recruiting new members. I think, I think it's fair to say that. We have perhaps the most robust and extensive and inclusive. Recruiting campaign for new members that may have ever happened on the finance committee. And it was something again, something we can build on those contacts, those organizations that we reached out to will be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In future years. And I want to thank. Charlie and Shane for taking a big role in that. I really appreciate. Their efforts. So this is a good segue to. A couple of other things. When I was. Talking to members, members who stepped down and talking to members of the finance committee, I think it's fair to say that. When I was serving on the finance committee, it became apparent to me that in order to recruit and retain really good quality finance committee members, we have to be more mindful of. What we're asking of people in terms of their time commitments. And the reality is being on the finance committee is a huge challenge. And I think it's a huge challenge. However, I began to think whether we can at least try to be more efficient and productive in our time. To lessen the load on people. So I asked. Our policies and procedures working group, which is how Jones, any of the court, I think it's important to. Do an analysis of our operations and maybe come up with some ideas. To build in some efficiencies to them. And what they came up with, they worked very diligently throughout the summer and into the fall. And what they came up with was a report that I think you all received. And I think it's important to look at your recommendations and I at this point, I just like to ask that group. You know, to talk a little bit about what they did and, and so generally what you came up with. Who wants to go first. Gosh. So we really spent a little time brainstorming. And I think it's important to be clear to me feel like the bottlenecks in the process were in what we're doing. And also what made it difficult for someone to efficiently process the budget. And we came up with a handful of recommendations. And I'm not looking at the list right now, but one of those recommendations was that we. Provide you all with a little bit more guidance about the kinds of questions the committee is going to ask you when you come back. Present a budget so that everything is covered in the review with your department head so that you don't get surprised by questions we asked you when they have to do another round with the department head and delay the vote. Another thing that we suggested was that, you know, we developed a process last year of allowing the committee to review the budget advance and ask questions of one another and make sure that like if you have a particular question, you want to be sure to get answered. And we did that all together in person and we thought that might be a better offline exercise where everyone will receive a deadline. I believe it's in the memo of a deadline to have reviewed the budget. If you are not covering the department head, see what questions you might have and get it to the person who is reviewing it. So they can ask that question. And then similarly, we usually spend an evening doing a warrant review where we all walk through the warrant together. And we think that a subcommittee might be able to more effectively walk through the warrant. What we're looking for is are there any articles other than our standard boilerplate articles that we as a committee need to take a position on? That is, do they involve money either now or in the future and therefore should we put in our agenda to review it and invite someone for a unit? I think we actually recommended to Chris and maybe want to do that review and present us with the list. And then everybody will get an offline option to simply say, can you have this article as well? I personally think that we ought to review it. So we're hoping to push some of that kind of bureaucratic stuff off. What would the other things be like? We're going to be, as you might know, a lot of times departments come in, give presentations, handouts that they provide at the meeting. So no one has had a chance to even look at what they're presenting. So we were going to be requiring that any materials to give them to the FinCon at least 48 hours before the meeting. So we will have a chance to look through and answer the form of questions, but at least not be looking at the presentation for the first time when they're walking through it. I think sort of in a nutshell, we didn't find any sort of massive silver ball in the kind of things, but we're hoping that by sort of fine tuning some of our processes, that we can squeeze out some efficiency and maybe get the time a little more. Both the time of the meetings themselves and the time span over the weeks that we do meet, we can get a little more contained. So we'll see if any of this helps. But I believe the goal was to see if we can reduce the number of weeks that we're meeting, and therefore be very compact and concise about the questions we would be having. And one of the biggest things that I think everyone can need to help with that, is if you do not get up to the department and do it now, so that we don't have nights when we're asking whether or not anybody's got a letter to present in the answer, so there's no one that at least got one. And therefore we don't go out of business. Now we're done that, and we'll have to come back one more night in the middle of the season. So, I'm already taking liberty of contacting all of my departments, so I'm going to set a good example here, which is not like me. I think many of their recommendations are really very thoughtful and sound, and I want to test them out this year. If they improve the meetings and their operation grade, if they don't, then we can drop them. So one of the recommendations was to urge everyone, not just to look at their own budgets that have been assigned to them, but the entire town manager's proposed budget. And if you see, if you have questions, direct your questions to whoever is responsible for that budget. But early, like right now, within the next few days and next week, we take a look at the entire budget. We want the budget subcommittees to have all of the questions that they need to ask before they need their department. So if you have the question of, for example, what is that $15,000 line item called other purchased, other, what's it called, otherwise purchased items in the natural resources budget. You asked Shane and Jennifer and Jordan that before they meet with the, with the D.P.W. department heads so that they can get that information. So when they present that budget and you have that question, they have that answer for you. So I really urge you to do that as soon as possible. And as Annie says, I urge you to do that as soon as possible. So that we can really get these budgets done. And I have asked, I'll ask my vice chairs again, start nudging people, just reminding them, just figuring out when you'll be able to present your budgets, helping you if you have any questions. And that's the other thing too, is that the vice chairs are here to help. And so if you have a, if you have a question, if you have a problem, send them an email, give them a call, give me a call, send me an email rather than, rather than just wait and let it fester and then you presents and then we can't finish that budget. What we want to do is reduce the back and forth that used to happen sometimes where somebody would present a budget and we would have this list of questions that they couldn't answer. So they would have to go back to the department head to get those answers and then, then present it, find a place in our schedule to finalize that budget. So we want to avoid that. I also like the idea of a warrant review officer and I have asked Al Tosti to be that person. So what, what we're going to ask Alan to do is to prepare a list of those warrant articles that we should hear and report on to town meeting and come to the committee with that list. What we'll then debate is not, we'll debate if there are any other warrant articles that somebody wants to conduct a hearing on, or if someone feels like Alan has something in his list that we shouldn't, we'll only focus on that instead of going through the warrant. Like we used to do one article after another after another and somebody would say, yes, I want a hearing. And then we would debate that. So hopefully I think that will take a, say a chunk of our time doing that. I thought the questions that came up with were really spot on. And I think that would be helpful for not just new members, but for even older members who have been doing this to, to refresh types of information, questions that you should know about the budget. Any questions or comments about that. And I also will. Although I might ask, allow some leeway for the town manager or other town officials who come to us in terms of getting their materials 48 hours before. When it comes to warrant proponents, I'm really going to, to be strict about making sure that they get their materials to us within at least 48 hours before. So that as Annie says, and as Dale says, we get an opportunity to really look at it. And so we have thoughtful questions to ask. When it's time for them to present. And so we can vote on it right away rather than say, well, we still have to do some thinking about this. We have to review that. We had an opportunity to really get into this. So, but again, that puts the onus on us to do our homework before these meetings. So the goal is to maybe cut down on the number or length of meetings, but that puts the onus on you to do your home before the meetings. Any questions or comments and think about what we've been talking about. Other reports of our working groups. Anything else that the policies and procedures working group master report on. I think this was the big push. I think that was the big push. I think that was the big push. I think that was the big push. Communication. Charlie. Shane. You had some PR. Well, then I'll take a crack at it. Thanks, Christine. So pursuing is very modest. I think she's the most shoe leather. I think it's improving, but Charlie and I did our part. So, so our working group. Overall goal in addition to recruitment is just raise visibility of the committee in town. So. We're going to be working on the commission. So. So, we're going to be working on the commission. So. The communication is important group sort of left and larger obviously. Vacancies. Vacancies on the committee. So one of our first tasks was building a job posting. Which is actually still up on the website. Although now working with Tarah to refine it. So we're very excited that it's only one vacancy down from, I think. A lot more. So we're very proud of that. So in the second project that Charlie and I worked on with the commission. We're going to be working on the commission. So basically, so you're all in 10 for those of you who read your own 10.com. We developed a little op-ed just basically saying, Hey, here's who the finance committee is. Here's why we're, here's why we're an important little part of town government. And here's who makes up the town, the finance committee. So that's still up there. I think it's gotten some good, good views on it. If I do say so myself. So. And then sort of for, so for the future. And I'm just going to go through that. And I'm going to go through that. So I think it's really important to get the commission out. You know, whether we can. Do similar projects like that. Whether it's to wrong 10.com or other sort of local outlets, sort of again. They get into a little bit more of like, sort of the specific work. So. So that's our vision for the future. And also where we've been. So. We're a small, small, but mighty. So I'd all interested in it. Just let me know. If you're interested in working on communications. To talk to Charlie and Shane, as well as working on policies and procedures as well, or any other working groups we have. We have the IT working group, right? That's still active for. Yeah, we haven't done. Because we're all also on policies and procedures. We haven't done a whole lot of digging in, but I think that sort of next up for us is to look at, you know, how might we best preserve. Or create some longitude. For the committees. What is the. And over time. Maybe a little bit more detailed than just a one number. Things like that. It will help us to understand sort of where we've been, where we're going. The big picture of how the time has been. That's probably something that we won't tackle in the spring after we're done with the season. And then come back with some recommendations about what we think they ought to be looking at. That isn't to say that those data sources do exist. There's a lot of data on the town website. And on the state website, as we said, the training session. There's a lot of stuff available. We just don't feel like it's going to pull people together. I think just the other day, I saw an announcement from the DLS or BLS, whatever the local department of local services. They have a new. Order. I haven't seen it. But it's supposed to be easier to use. Yeah. If that's true. That would be. Right now you can look at your town, but you can't easily use it. I'm sure. I just, I think just the other day I saw an announcement from the. DLS or BLS, whatever the local department of local services. They have a new. Order. Comparing town. I haven't seen it. But it's supposed to be easier to use. Yeah. Right now you can look at your town. But you can't. They said you can look at wall 351 towns. Big. Also some deflation. But I didn't have time to get in. It's available. We could. You. Detail comparison of the 10 minutes as well. Which. When we did that. Please. Report. I did the comparison using the DLS data. And it was a pain. Download everything. And then. We got the stuff I didn't want. So. Really nice. Al. Al Tosti. You were. You were involved in the operations. You are involved in the operations working group. Correct. You did the solid waste analysis. Oh, right. Yes. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the solid waste analysis. Oh, right. Yes. Who else is on that committee? Working group. Dave McKenna. Peter. Dean Carmen. And of course Peter was on it, but he's not there anymore. So the operations working group. I refer to as the deep dive working group. We started as Darrell mentioned. Two years ago. Police department. We did a deep dive of the police department. It's budget. It's operations. Essentially review to figure out. Were there any. Issues of a financial nature that we should know about. And we produced a report that I think is still on our website. I'm not sure. But it. It was a pretty thorough review. And after that, then Al and Dave and Peter did the solid waste analysis. Correct. And that was provided to town meeting last year, I think with our report. I don't know. Was there any discussion about another area to. To dive into. Al. Dave.  So it's, it's. It's hard to. Pull everything together over the summer and fall. We got absolutely no feedback. On the recycling. Trash disposal. Which is a bit disappointing. I suppose it was okay from an educational point of view. On. On that, but you know, we don't have anything on our plate right now. Well, we might. Reconstitute that group at some point. Maybe towards the end of the budget season and. And see if there are other areas you might want to dive into. So that's another opportunity for people to. Join. Some additional work for the committee. And we are joined today right now by Carolyn light. Carolyn. Carolyn was on the committee and I just stepped down from the committee. Now she's back on. Great. Great. A few other updates. The long range planning committee is been meeting. Annie Allen. Do you want to say anything about what's been going on in one way to plan for me? Well, the figure discussion long range planning committee. Aside from the general updates on the five year plan that we'll hear, you know, when the time manager is here is the encroaching need for an override of some size at some time. And the questions are always. How big should it be? How many years can we promise it'll last a two year override three year override, four year override or whatever. And then there's some new questions came up about sort of policies about. Where should, for example, in school salaries, you know, where should we be? What should our target be to be an average or above average or below average? That is another dimension. And some policies about how we go forward. Do we deal anything with the structural deficit? But the big questions from the select board are when do we ever override and how big shouldn't they be? Because we, you know, in some cases it may be too big to for anyone to swallow. In other cases it's too small to be effective. So I guess that's the major topics and long range planning. And there's no long range planning. Sort of is the time manager, the select board, the school superintendent and a number of representatives, the treasurer, the contour or get together sort of. Talk about the big picture of things and come up with guidance that goes into a five year plan, which is what drives us in the way. Yeah. And just to note, it's, it's select board of us, the school committee, all with representation that does not represent a form. So that those boards don't have to post this separately and read about votes and minutes for their own boards. So. It is publicly posted, but none of us have a forum at that meeting. Hence the fact that we have three finance committee members is that the whole committee. And there's a place in SharePoint where I try to copy all of the materials. Long range plan on some of the discussions. For anyone. Um, for what it's worth the debate about, timing is, is it this tournament or is it next. And the debate about the size is a question of how long do we commit for that or like a last. The years for years. Because that changes the number that you have to ask for. And then there's always a question of what's in and where of question of what's in and what's out of the commitments that we make. So we set ourselves some rules and say to the public, these are the things we're committing to. Budget foreign fees more than this. We won't come back to you for this many years, etc. And then also, are there other adjustments to the budget we need to make that would change the overwrite order? Do we increase the funding in any department to cover salary competitiveness for expenses that are increasing? So that's kind of a big day. And there are some unknowns. We don't know how much stating we're going to be getting. At the last meeting, the school committee throughout the need to for additional funds to or contract negotiations to pop up teacher salaries to be competitive with the town of manager 12 that led to a discussion about well, how what's that impact on addition on other salary negotiations for the town employees. And then all through all of that, I have yet to hear anyone talk about the solid waste issue that we'll have to deal with in two years one year. Madam chair, what's the town manager 12? I'm going to try to pick up stuff that like cultural knowledge that not everybody right now. Town manager 12 is the 12 communities that our town manager has typically compared us to and used us as a comparison. And I will buy a drink for anyone who can sit here right now and name all 12 of them. I can't name all 12, but I can tell you where you can find them. So you can find them by going to the financial information page and looking at the town manager's financial information. It's like a financial budget statement that is this fancy document that has all kinds of information about departments and so on and so forth. And he starts out with a lot of statistical charts at the beginning. One of those shows you do the 12 and does some raw comparisons of us on some areas of spending and taxation. In theory, there are peer communities by which we can judge how well we're doing. The reason that I say that 12 may change is that this was 12 chosen by former town manager at Jeff Lee and a new town manager may decide. So there is a question. We have a solid waste contract that we just entered earlier in the second year of a three-year contract. So we're going to have to if we're not already looking into new contract, which will be much more expensive than what we're paying right now. And maybe more limited in what services we're going to get. And like the last override, there was no consideration of the solid waste issue in the last override. It seems like that's going to be the case here, but I don't know how long we can keep that. I can't say a bomb waiting to go off soon for us. So it's an interesting time. I can't remember what the next long-range plan committee meeting is. Sometimes we're going to have to wait, sometimes we're going to have to wait, sometimes we're going to have to wait. February 17th. Oh, all right. In the middle of my day. We will report back to the full committee after the next long-range plan committee meeting on 17th. Next on reports is the capital planning committee. Daryl, anything you want to talk to us about? Daryl is our liaison finance committee, committee's liaison to the capital planning committee. Following, trying to follow in Charlie's footsteps alone. It's imprinted on the capital planning committee. Well, they're online. So there's a capital planning committee of about, I think it's about eight or nine members. The chair is going to team more. Yontar, who also happens to be run the capital planning program for the state. So we're very fortunate to have him. So we have a pool of about $89 million a year that's used primarily for purchase or significant improvement of significant assets. So this is things that are outside the standard operating budget.  So as with everything to do with public funding, there's way more demand than there is available funds. So we go through a process that starts down in September and is about to wrap up to figure out how we can best take the capital resources we have to do the most good. So the capital planning committee will be coming before the FinCom on February 27th. Their presentation will take up most of the meeting and they'll walk through the plan pretty much in depth, explain far better than I have. Now how sources of capital funds, how they get used, how they get sort of husbandhood through the whole process over a multi, over a five-year, general five-year time period. And if you have any questions, I expect since we're reviewing the third draft of the report later this week, I expect it's pretty close to being finalized and we should be able to get it to the finance committee well before the 27th, I don't know exactly when. But if after you've had a chance to look through the report, have any questions contract them to me and obviously the presentation itself for your time. Thanks. The other reports Caroline. Can you reclass for last year for those who have to look at it? What's that? I can have us go over the reclassifications that happened last year for those who are in charge of departments that have a reclassification. Raise your hand if you have one of the following budgets, planning and community development, council on aging, facilities, EPW, HR, treasurer, IT, health and human services, including youth consulting center, and that's in libraries and recreation. So take, you know, take, you know who you are, take one and pass them along. I know this is old school, it's paper. You have three pages in front of you, or you will. Those of you who are new there, look along next to someone, they'll worry we'll go over this when this year's coming. Forget whether or not you're in a department, let me know. I'll tell you where they are again. Yeah. The three pages. So what happens in a town is that people get a job and have a classification. Classifications are in the very back of this year's budget. They start on page 201 and they're funding letters and numbers and you have questions figuring out what the letters and numbers stand for. You can see me because I've been doing this in the past. And what happens is if somebody's job they feel has changed significantly, then they can request a reclassification of their job numbers and letters. And they go through their manager and they present to HR and HR makes a decision. Last year, 17 people of five, nine were denied. Those nine, seven are healed. And when they are healed it involves an outside consulting firm that HR consulting group that does that. There are usually other HR town managers. And eight of those nine that are healed, none of them were approved. I mean, out of the seven that are healed, none of them were approved. So eight of the reclassifications from the 717 were accepted last year. And what happens is you get this crazy mash-up of by reclassifying the following positions and you'll see A through J. And sometimes there's a reclass that occurs without being asked. That's a whole nother topic. And you either are going to find that it's by adding a following position, which is the number two on the second page, or by the end, or by deleting the following position, which is on the third page. And what you should be able to do is any time you see your department name underneath one of the letters, then try to match that up with this year's budget on your HR page for your budget. And what you want to see is that the change did occur. That there isn't either an increase in salary and a change in number and often a change in title. If it hasn't happened, let me know because we need to let the Allen know and the town manager or the assistant town manager so that they can update the budget. And it'll also explain why somebody's salary may have gone up exponentially or even just substantially. If the FTE is .8771, like this recycling coordinator, it's because they don't quite work full time. But for the most part, you'll see an FTE of one. And email me or catch me at the next meeting and I can help you figure that stuff out. That's it for me. Any questions for now? It's okay. It's what I just said makes absolutely no sense. Take away, Carolyn. Hand it out. Look at your budgets. And then come back on Wednesday with questions. Thanks, Carolyn. Could you send that? Yes, everyone. Yeah, thank you. All right. Let's look at the minutes of June 22nd. I'll approve those. While I'm pulling that up, I just heard from the IT department that they're going to be upgrading us to Microsoft Outlook instead of the end payment system sometime in the next couple of weeks. So just a heads up for everyone. Okay. So really quick, I have the minutes up here. They were distributed by email. And I just wanted to ask before we review this, if anyone can confirm the name of the fund that we approved a motion to transfer from the reserve from to during the end of your transfers. Yes. We voted to move $200,000 to the fire department and $10,000 to the town managers. Okay. Okay. For a total of $210,000. Okay. Okay. Okay. You said to the fire department and then you said to the town manager, the town manager department. Thanks. Let me know if anyone wants to see a specific area here. And anybody have any questions, revisions, minutes of June 22nd, 2020, 2022, with revisions that the amendment that we just did. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of June 22nd? So moved. Second. All right. All right. All in favor, say I. All right. Anybody opposed? All right. The minutes of June 22nd, 2022 have been approved in the minutes. Okay. Anybody have any budgets, Ruby? I was hoping. So small ones. Okay. This code to have in the library ready to go, Chris, but we have to go. All right. Anna, you will check with Minuteman and get. Yes. Let us know when. I can predict that we will have all the help and human services in the areas and record rank and all the, all that stuff by next Monday. And I am hoping your library is going to be soon enough to do it. And Darryl, you're still thinking that this is our one budget to be ready next week. Monday. We're meeting with fire and boys Wednesday. Great. David? I think we can do one budget tonight. Cool. 17. It's called the finance committee. But it's just a budget primarily stays the same with the exception of the salary. Our budget that takes care of stipends stipends and also the salary for the executive secretary and coverage expenses that you may incur. Anybody have any questions on the finance committee budget general question? Sure. So in the finance committee, especially in the first few columns, do you have FDA degree and then step and then step again? Two columns, the same step there. And what is the difference between step and longevity? No, I think it's a type of, yeah. No, it's a, I think it's, if you look on another department, it's for mid steps. Where's this full step? Yeah, it's called S step in another department. Some people step in a portfolio and some people step apart. Like some departments, S step and others, it's just step. What happens if you ever see any types that we're talking about? There are five just where there are two steps and they're two different numbers. Oh, because they would have been at one step part of the year and one step part of the year. I think that's what's on you. And this is Charlie. They could do the time difference exactly when the increase comes in. Charlie. On the finance committee budget, how do we do an expensive last year versus the budget? Exactly. Any other questions on the finance committee budget? David, are you making a motion? Yes. I'll make a motion that we accept as printed in the budget book. The finance committee for 11,088. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion, questions? All right. All in favor of approving the finance committee budget? Say aye. Anybody opposed? It's unanimous. Finance committee budget has been approved. Thank you for having the budget. One down. A couple of other things on my list. I think you all received the email from Sandy Silver that we now have a new WTown Manager from the Finance Director, Alex C.B. Skid News and the bad news is Phyllis Marshall, our treasurer. It will be a good question to ask the town manager what the plan is for replacing her. And speaking of the town manager people, we are meeting by a Zoom on Wednesday night and much of the meeting will be taken up by the town manager's presentation to us. So come with us with questions. One more thing I want to say and we say this every year regarding the upcoming town elections. Whether it's an override or not, we will have town elections and it's been the policy of the finance committee to stay out of any electioneering on behalf of any particular candidate for a town position. You can campaign on your life for statewide candidates or referendum but when it comes to local politics we really want to stay above the fray and keep, make any appearance of neutrality. And in terms of the override committee, the finance committee itself will take a vote whether to support or not an override so we will add on on our, Annie. With regards to the override, regardless of how it can be built, we are going to have to individually pick a position on that and work or not work on a campaign for it. Correct. We, the finance committee will take a position. Right. But it's an internal citizen's position. And the vote will be reported 24-0 against or hopefully not 11-4 and 10 against. Yeah. Hopefully there will be a consensus, strong consensus. Only someone will be treating those two. Could be, could be. But for obvious reasons, we really do want to make seem completely impartial when we stand up and give our recommendations and we really want them to see us as just having the town finances at heart and them or it's how many of them are. So, so just remember that as we go forward this spring. And that is pretty much all that I have. Again, we'll have the town manager meeting with us by Zoom on Wednesday. Maybe we'll have some more budgets done. I'm hoping, certainly we should get into the big swing of approving budgets the following week. And what, does anybody have anything else? Charlie? Yes, Christine. What's the plan on meetings in person versus Zoom or versus hybrid? Good question. My plan is for the rest of February to be moved meeting by Zoom that will, I think, accommodate the most number of people. There is still a concern about COVID as well and I, so that's what the decision I've made. I would have met in person on Wednesday, but we don't have a room available. I wanted to have the first two meetings in person, but that didn't happen. So we're meeting by Zoom throughout all of, at least most of February. I'm reserving the option to meet, start meeting again in person towards the end of February and hopefully in March will be my goal is that we'll all come back together. But we'll see what COVID, are we uncomfortable with that? Gordon? I have three quick things. So you're not doing, I noticed last year you were on activity and you're not doing that this year or did I do something? I'm trying to find it. They are actively recording us right now. Just recording. Okay. They weren't broadcasting last year. Okay, I didn't know that. The second thing was you might be interested to see the impact of the textile waste ban on the tonnage because that could be a substantial amount. And the last thing is this long range planning committee had agendas, and then it's because I don't see them online. There's a very broad, big agenda. We will be talking about the long range plan. And minutes I have not seen. Well, I just think the best of the pictures. So there's, there's, I believe there are no minutes because there are no votes. And it's possible that something should be considered. Thank you for the question regarding textiles. Does the DPW subcommittee have a question? Let's put that on your list. Pardon? That could be almost as much as a thousand times. So DPW. We're at it. Yep. So I wish that we weren't ending at 8.30. I want to do more productive, but there's absolutely nothing further for us to do at this point. So I think we'll just call it a night. And hopefully from here on, we'll be going straight until 10 o'clock every night to build out our budgets and get our work done. So Madam chairman, are we going to get copies of the five year plan before Wednesday? As opposed to something other than what the town manager has in his book? On, yeah, is any updates on it? I'll see if there's any updates. Okay. But it's basically what's in the budget. That's what I'm understanding. Okay. Thank you. So I just play a question. You mentioned a deadline for people to get on to each other. I'm very deadline to enter. What would that be? I'm sorry. Sorry, if we have questions, they come in for other people's budgets. Well, I would say that I am meeting with, or I'm meeting with Christine from Jordan on Thursday and with Joe Connelly for recommending Wednesday morning. So if you have questions about those budgets, you have a couple of days to review those budgets and get us any questions. We did notice a lot of things that are different in those budgets that I think have moving through some of these departments and some art positions and so on and so forth. Those are already down. I already are. But if you go through it, where the client is calling, you have anything you're concerned about, send me an email. My plan is to get some questions to both of them in advance tomorrow based on our records and the line notes that will be sort of general questions that I hope will send all the answers, but do something specific. So let me know, and even if I don't get it until Wednesday morning, I will leave it into the conversation. Does that help? Yeah. Well, the other thing is, when they present, you can ask as many questions as you want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, you know, and yeah, the whole bar. We'll see, we'll see how well Rebecca and I guess, but lots of questions are that you would have to ask if you had time to look at the money. So we don't have to go back to Christine asking. And most important questions may be just, just generally, what, how is that program going with the library? Is that, is it, is it successful? Is it not successful? That money for that program is, how is that working? What's, is there a plan for this? Those are the type of questions that these, all of our subcommittees should be thinking about anyway, but just in case, if you really, if you're really interested, get those questions before or as soon as possible so that people can prepare. Like, where is the, where is the town in terms of its tree program? Is that, are we falling behind or are we, are we on, on par with the tree plan? Those are the type of questions that you have them, get them to the committee, subcommittees, so that they can talk to their department head and, and get the answers for you. It's also the opportunity to get answers to questions that may come up. They can do what they can find managers, but a statement that includes sort of, you know, the goals and accomplishments of the department and all that kind of stuff. There may be some questions that get sparked by that. I, I try to try to let them handle those questions because I don't want them to feel like I'm trying to manage them. But it is the one shot that we get to get some answers to that kind of thing. Helen, then the other thing that I've done in the past is you keep good notes about what they said they were going to do in the next year so that they can come back the following year and you can ask, how did that program go? Did you spend that money there and there have been times when it was like, wait, are you going to do what? And the most important thing is to do your budget. To really look at your budget, meet with your department head, ask the questions, understand your budget, and be able to explain what's happening in that budget to the rest of us so that we can hope to approve it or not. And again, if you have any questions, talk to me or Daryl or Ann or Allen. We're here to help. And of course Tara is the goddess of everything operationally in terms of email, SharePoints, getting, you know, make sure you have the Zoom invite, all things like that. She has the answers. All right, so is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. So see you all by Zoom on Wednesday night.


If you've got a walk-in shower, you may want to think about a shower seat. If the space is small, then think about a wall-mounted one, but you've got to make sure that the wall's solid. Also, you may want to think about having grab rails installed, especially if you've got a step to negotiate. If your shower is large enough to accommodate a seat with arms, then this will be the best bed as they are adjustable in height and have arms for you to push up with.


Good morning. Welcome to CMC Markets on Friday, the 8th of April and this week beginning and the week beginning, the 11th of April. It's been another positive week for the FTSE 100 as it looks to close higher for the fifth week in a row. However, markets on the other side of the channel have struggled to some extent. The CAC 40 in France in particular has come under pressure ahead of the first round of the French elections which are taking place this weekend. We've also seen the DAX come under pressure this week as well. European markets slid back for the third day in succession on Thursday as investors continue to absorb the messaging from Wednesday's Fed Minutes and the Outlying Plans to reduce the size of the balance sheet by $95 billion a month with a potential start date potentially as soon as next month at the main meeting when the Fed is also expected to raise rates by 50 basis points and by and large equity markets have managed to pretty much absorb the impact of that announcement fairly well. If we look at US 10-year yields, for example, we've seen them hit their highest levels in quite some time by moving above 2.6%. We can see that on this chart here. I mean, if we look at what US yields have done since the beginning of the year, they're up over 110 basis points and yeah, equity markets are in the US, that is equity markets are only down fairly modest amount around about 5 or 6%. If we then extend that out and look at say, for example, at over three years, we are at three-year highs for the US 10-year treasury. There is potential for them to go higher. There's certainly an awful lot of discussion at the moment amongst US policymakers about where the Fed funds rate is likely to be by the end of this year, where the neutral rate is likely to be. On Thursday night, we had Rafael Bostic of the Atlanta Fed and Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed who said that they envisaged the Federal Reserve raising rates towards the neutral rate by the end of 2022, this year, potentially early 2023. That does raise the question as what the neutral rate is when you've got CPI. US CPI, which is likely to move through 8% next week currently at 7.9%. One of the key items that I'll have my eye on in the coming days is the US CPI print for March. Which is due out on the 12th of April. In February, it was at 7.9%. It's likely to move well above that in the March meeting. Certainly, not the March meeting in the March numbers. The reason for that is the big jump that we've seen in the prices paid components of the various ISM indices that we've seen released in over the course of the past couple of weeks manufacturing and services. They both jumped sharply in March. Again, the story is inflation. Very much so. Very much inflation. We've got UK CPI next week for March. We don't even have the energy price rises that kicked in this week or 54% for domestic consumers to absorb. They haven't been absorbed yet. The tax rises in national insurance, which kick in this week. They won't be in the numbers quite yet. The rise in council tax, rises in council tax, that also will be in the April numbers. We won't know what they are until May. The worst is yet to come for the UK consumer, notwithstanding the measures that the Chancellor announced in his recent budget, which ultimately are unlikely to have a significant effect until July. The change in the national insurance thresholds, for example, that the Chancellor announced in his spring statement won't actually kick in until July. We'll have three months of national insurance rates or thresholds that are at the slightly lower level and won't kick in until the changes are implemented in July. The outlook for inflation still remains a pretty dark one, certainly as far as the UK and the US is concerned. On the wages front, we've got the UK wages data, which is due out on the Tuesday, as well as unemployment number. I think that is probably one of the saving graces if you can call that in this global, and it is global, this global cost of living squeeze. If we look at the cost of UK, long-term borrowing, guilt prices, guilt yields, they're also edging higher, albeit not at the same level as US Treasury yields. The US dollar is back at levels, the US dollar index is back approaching the 100 level, its highest level since May 2020, as rate differentials and the hawkishness of the Fed helps to drive the US dollar higher pretty much across the board. The biggest losers this week have been the Japanese Yen and the Euro. But certainly in terms of interest rate expectations, the outlook I think for UK rates is likely to see further rate increases. Will we see another rate hike in May? That is probably less of a certainty for the UK central bank than it is for the Federal Reserve, but nonetheless, I think the Bank of England may well be forced into it because of the weakness of the pound, particularly against the dollar. Given the fact that most commodity prices are in US dollars, I think it's in the Bank of England's interest to at least try and hang onto the coattails of the Federal Reserve when it comes to raising interest rates. This still seems a certain element of doubt as to whether or not Federal Reserve will actually be able to implement the number of rate rises that they are potentially talking about, given concerns about the US economy. But as I say, that remains to be seen. Looking at the key chart points on the major indices, FTSE 100 up for the fifth week in a row, approaching those previous highs that we saw in February around about 7,686. That's the next key resistance level if we take it back even further than that. Obviously, we've got the record highs that we saw back in May 2018. So we are holding up fairly well. I think the weakness of the pound is probably playing into some of that. Obviously, the strengths of commodity prices, although oil prices are slightly weaker this week. But overall FTSE 100 is holding up fairly well. Less obvious is the direction for the DAX. That is still looking a little bit on the soft side. I think obviously there is an element of proximity concern there with respect to events in Eastern Europe. Obviously, Germany's reliance on Russian fossil fuels is playing into the weakness in German equities. The potential for an embargo on Russian oil and gas is pressure for Germany and the EU to act given events in Ukraine and the Butcher massacres and other potential atrocities could well see further pressure brought to bear for Germany to cut its reliance on Russian energy imports. I think that is potentially weighing on German equities more broadly. Certainly, if we can look at the direction of travel when it comes to the highs here, downside pressure remains. We really need to see a break of this peak here around about 14,800 even if we do break above this downtrend line from here. But certainly momentum does appear to be waning when it comes to the direction of travel for the DAX. S&P 500 slightly more positive. We've managed to move above the previous highs that we saw in February, albeit very, very briefly. We have since slipped back. Obviously, we hit three months highs on the S&P 500 last week. So you're going to see a little bit of profit taking on the back of that, particularly given the direction of travel when it comes to US monetary policy and some concerns about the resilience or otherwise of the US consumer. At the moment with unemployment rate back at pre-pandemic levels, wage growth around about 5.6% are fairly positive payrolls report. I think there is some optimism that the US consumer will be able to absorb some or for the most part the cost of living squeeze that most consumers are undergoing. But given the US consumer credit numbers for February, I think maybe there is an underestimation or an overestimation perhaps of the amount of savings that US consumers currently have. US consumer credit for February jumped from fairly low figure in January to $41 billion. US consumers borrowed $41 billion, a record high in February of that credit card debt jumped from $3 billion in January to $18 billion in February. So if you've got savings, why would you put money on credit cards? And certainly why would you go and borrow money on credit cards at a time when interest rates are likely to go up quite significantly over the course of the next few months? That doesn't sit right. Having said that, it's important not to place too much store on one month's numbers. But certainly that big jump does raise questions about how much excess savings, excess in inverted commas US consumers have. So I think that's something to keep an eye out for. US retail sales, US personal spending over the course of the next few months. Because that could give a good indication as to how much disposable income US consumers currently have. And certainly I don't think they're going to fill the pinch in any way the same way that UK consumers are when it comes to higher energy costs. I mean, they're still filling the costs from high gasoline prices, but certainly with the fact they have their natural gas prices are much lower. Certainly the costs of doing business are slightly lower. So in terms of the numbers that are due out this coming week, we've got UK wages and unemployment for February, which is due out on the 12th of March. Certainly I think the more dovish commentary from the Bank of England has been weighing on the pound. The big support level on cable, this is for our chart, it's 130. It's the March lows that held in mid-March and we saw a rally back to 133, which coincided more or less with this sort of series of lows through here. This is really worrying for me in terms of the reactions of the lows. The highs are getting lower. The rallies are becoming much more difficult to sustain. So the big question is, can this 130 level hold? If it breaks, then what are we looking at thereafter? Certainly if we look at that chart there, the momentum is clearly towards the downside and that is a worry. So if we do break 130, then the next move is back to this area here of around about 12820. And if we take Fibonacci retracements of this move here from 114 to 14240, 50% of that is 12825. So 130 is a really big level. So we really need to keep a close eye on that because if we break below that, we could see a series of stop losses triggered and a reaction towards the downside. So I'm keeping an eye on 130 and stops down to 12960 because that could be a trigger for a move lower. Wages are expected to remain fairly resilient on the plus side for the UK consumer. They're currently at around about 4.8% for the three months to January. They are likely to continue to go higher. We've already seen the fact that upward pressure on wages is already forcing UK retailers to move prices higher. Tesco's is reporting in the coming days and they've already announced a 5.5% pay rise for their employees and that's likely to be increased. Sainsbury's has been doing the same. Aldi and Little have all been putting their wages up more than by 5 or 6%. So that is likely to support wages going forward. Of course that's not going to come anywhere close to offsetting the rise in the cost of living that we're about to see in April but it will certainly help and when the national insurance thresholds in July get raised obviously that will help as well. CPI currently at 6.2% certainly likely to go higher over the course of the next few months expecting a move towards 7% in the March CPI numbers. If we look at EU CPI that jumped quite significantly in March to 7.5% from 5.9%. Well if you extrapolate that out to the UK jump that we expected to see in March numbers then 6.2% we were in February we could well go through 7%. Expectations economists forecast are expecting a move to 6.7% that could well be an underestimation. RPI that looks even worse. So certainly in the context of inflation it's not likely to be a pretty picture. As far as euro sterling is concerned that's like watching paint dry but you've got to think that if we get a strong inflation number that is going to increase the pressure on the Bank of England to hike rates in May in addition to what we saw obviously at the previous two meetings where they hiked in consecutive meetings so we could well see a move to 1% base rate at the May meeting. Talking of interest rate increases we've got the Bank of Canada this week. They for they for went or foregoed the decision to raise rates at their last meeting which I felt was a mistake and now they're going to be playing catch up when they meet on the 13th of April. With the Fed having raised rates themselves already now the Bank of Canada now has cover to do the same I think the big question is will they raise rates by 25 basis points or will they go by 50 so raising them from 0.5% to 1% given the hawkish commentary that we've been hearing from the Fed over the course of the past few days. My hunch is they'll go by 50. I think the market expectation was for 25 at the beginning of this week that has shifted slightly over the past few days we could well see a 50 basis point rate move from the Bank of Canada. If they go by 25 basis points I don't think that's going to cut the mustard so certainly expect to move a 50 basis points from the Bank of Canada when they meet later this week. We've also got an ECB rate decision. I expect more fluff from the ECB this week in the minutes that were released on Thursday. I think there was an awful lot of complacency about the risks that higher prices are likely to have on the Eurozone economy. Unfortunately for the ECB they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I mean the March CPI number went to 7.5% a record high and other parts of the Euro area it's even higher. I talked about this at great length in the Baltic states we've got inflation rates above 10% now even in the bigger European northern European economies like Germany the numbers are now well above 7% and at post unification record highs so I don't see how the ECB can avoid raising rates at least twice this year given the direction and travel for prices. If they continue to push back against the possibility of a rate hike then this trend line here is going to come under enormous pressure. We've seen this trend line we've talked about it, we've talked about it before from the lows back at 103 in 2017 a break below 108 is certainly likely to trigger quite significant Euro weakness. We're already seeing the dollar index push back to the 100 level and if the dollar continues to push higher and there is an increasing reluctance on the part of the ECB to acknowledge the fact that there is a significant stagflation risk in terms of doing nothing then the Euro is likely to come under further pressure so ECB rate decision on the 14th just before Easter it's a shorter week shorter week this week. The ECB doesn't have the luxury of doing nothing. People like the Bundesbank, Jürgen Nagel of the Bundesbank has already articulated his discomfort about the direction of travel when it comes to rates so you're going to find that the hawkish voices are likely to get ever louder as inflation continues to push higher. So that's the outlook let's have a quick look at Brent prices. I think one of the one of the one of the more welcome outcomes of this week has been that the fact that oil prices continue to come under pressure and this is despite calls for stricter embargoes on Russian oil and gas. Obviously we've seen two reserve releases another reserve release over the course of the past couple of couple of weeks and oil prices do appear to be tracking lower. This is likely to be temporary but I think what's certainly helping prices fall is the COVID-19 lockdowns in China. We've got China trade numbers due out on the 13th of April it'll be interesting to see whether the various lockdowns the various restrictions have hit demand in the Chinese economy I would suggest that it'll be very very surprising if they haven't when you put a city like Shanghai of 26 million people into a COVID a strict COVID lockdown you're not going to get a significant pickup in demand you're going to see a massive drop-off in demand and certainly China's zero COVID policy is being tested and in my opinion it's completely unsustainable and ultimately that will break. The big question is where that breaking point is big level on Brent crude $98 a barrel these lows back in March we are looking for a potential push lower we're not likely to see much downside but certainly I think a break of $98 could see the potential for further declines going forward so let's look at Tescos we've got Tescos four year earnings on the 13th 200 day moving average big big support level as well as the March lows I think the big question for me is not so much about how well Tesco has done over the course of the past 12 months they've done very well certainly the direction of travel the share price has been fairly solid I think the big question for me more than anything else is how much of their costs increased that I think is going to be one of the key tests for Tescos and the big challenge going forward in the face of competition staff rising supply chain costs rising energy costs to squeeze on consumer incomes which is likely to quick squeeze supermarket margins so not so much about the backward looking numbers it's about how Tesco sees the outlook going forward I think and that could have a big impact on where we see the future direction of the share price which to my mind you know the share price is still very undervalued easy jet we've got easy jets latest numbers as well Q2 seen a little bit of a rebound since March obviously we've seen all of those headlines of cancellations COVID enforced sickness which could well have impacted its Q2 numbers one thing we can say I think with a certain degree of certainty is the load factor in Q2 is likely to have improved quite significantly fuel costs to 60% hedged at $504 per metric ton compared to the current price which is much higher the airline has said that Q4 capacity on sale is back to 2019 levels with an expectation that the current quarter could come in above 67% of 2019 levels obviously recent events could well have a part to play in that but I think if you think that things are going to start to get back to normal and this present bout of absenteeism is a blip then potentially there's more upside and easy jets share price than there is downside US bank earnings it's the start of US bank earnings season I'm not going to look at anything more than JP Morgan their numbers are due out on the 13th but we also have Citigroup Q1 numbers on the 14th and we've got Goldman Sachs Q1 numbers on the 14th but I'm going to look at JP Morgan the numbers here have been in the slow move lower over the course of the last three months large part of that has been concerns over the impact that rising interest rates is likely to have not only on consumer demand but mortgage demand you look at US mortgage demand that has fallen quite significantly US mortgage rates have gone up quite substantially over the course of the past three months you've only got to look at the 10-year yield to understand that US consumers will now be paying more on their mortgages than they were at the beginning of the year if we look at say for example JP Morgan profits most of the profits over the course of the last 12 months have been boosted by releases from loan loss reserves obviously that is not a factor that the JP Morgan will be able to price in going forward higher rates the last set of numbers prompted a 26% fall in home lending revenue credit card and auto loan demand also saw revenues fall 9% in Q4 to five billion dollars that's the trend that's likely to continue in Q1 and the Russia situation will have a significant impact on JP Morgan as well as Goldman Sachs as well as Citigroup all of those banks had operations in Russia so the withdrawal from Russia is also likely to have impacted their Q1 numbers all will be acknowledged in future numbers for the rest of the year so and JP Morgan has already said that is expected to see losses of one billion dollars and its Russia business as a result of its withdrawal from that so pay particular attention to the Russia exposure for US bank earnings when the numbers are released later in the week so that's pretty much it for this week once again thank you very much for listening ladies and gentlemen I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll speak to you all same time same place but on Thursday next week thank you for listening


The only reason I took this case on a savage island off the coast of New Guinea was that I've been having a bout with a bottle of old fairy godmother and I was hoping to run into a native who would shrink my head. This is another in the adventures of America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator Johnny Duller. At insurance investigation Johnny Duller is only an expert.  Expense account submitted by special investigator Johnny Duller. To Seven Seas Maritime Underwriters Association, Hartford, Connecticut. Attention Enos McCardle, general manager. The following is an accounting of my expenditures during my assignment on the island of Tin Utan. Or south of the equator things can get hot in more ways than one. Or Mother call my draft board. I'm leaving the country again. Expense account, item one. Eight hundred and thirty dollars and eighty one cents and three and a half shillings. Airfare, Hartford, Connecticut to Port Moresby Territory of Papua Island of New Guinea. That's a long trip brother. By the time I got there I felt that my spine could use a new seating arrangement. Expense account, item two. Thirty six dollars and eighty cents. New outfit consisting of bush jacket, linen shorts and a fifth helmet. Item three, two bits, a street beggar regarding location of building in which was situated the Port Moresby branch of the Seven Seas Maritime Underwriters Association. Oh, him long long house, him blonde wife fellow. Little way big bit money, money. You catch him sweet long side, hurry, hurry.  Him long long house, blonde from there, no? No. Thanks a lot. I'll go look it up in a telephone book. Oh, yes, sir. I'm Mr. Narkey and it's lovely having you here, Mr. Dollar. I wish I could say the same about being here. Oh, now you get used to it. Ah, I don't expect to be here that long. Cool.  You have a very large job to do. Let's just say I'm usually very lucky. Look, first let me tell you what I've been told so far and then if I've left out anything you fill me in, okay? That will be picky boo, Mr. Dollar. Your company issued a group insurance policy to the Grand East Development Corporation in the United States. Now that company used $50,000 life insurance policies as part of the inducement to get executives and divers for their furling fleets. That's right. About a month ago, they got word that the bodies of two of their six-man crew on the island of Tinutan had been found hacked to pieces. The other four men were missing, which adds up to a possible insurance payoff of $350,000. That's what I'm doing here and that's all I know. Well, that's all there is to know. Oh, Dandy. Has anybody done anything? What about the police? They got their own troubles right here in the port. End is for the government officials. They'll look into it the next time around. They should be in about 90 days. Oh, fine. That leaves you. What have you been doing to earn your money, waiting for me? Well, you could put it that way, Mr. Dollar. Why haven't you gone over to Tinutan? Well, now you might say that I'm just not a man of great courage, eh? Hey, but, Sire, I can help you to get there. Oh, thanks. Heaps. Mr. Major, Mr. Narkey of the Seven Seas Maritime Underwriters tells me you might be available for a charter job. Where to? Tinutan. Well, I guess, um, this is a big boat. It'll cost you big money. Narkey says your price is a fair. When do we leave? I'll be ready by five. I can't be two. Good. I'll go get my toothbrush. Good. And since you're going to Tinutan, he might also bring one other thing. A 45. It was a two-master schooner and a skimless swell of the Arufa Sea like a saltwater bird after which it was named. I guess I'm like most guys. When I'm standing on my sea legs, I suddenly feel like a giant, standing alone against the world. Romance is no longer a sleazy blonde in a tinny bar. All of a sudden it's all stars and sky, horizon. When the wind and the water start to sing their song to me, any bad in me decides to reform. I was standing on top of the deck house like Captain Horatio Hornblower with my legs spread and my outstretched hands gripping a pair of backstage. At least that's what I think they were. And just about the time I'd reached the decision to trade my heart for an apartment for a berth on a Macassar purling lugger, I heard a footstep from out of the night behind me. Fair passage. Oh, yeah, Captain. I guess you caught me dreaming. And waste of time. This is the only place where dreaming can't possibly be as good as living. It's not my business, but this sudden jump in Tinutan tourist trade. What's it all about? What do you mean sudden? Well, this is the first time I've ever taken one passenger there, let alone two. Two? Yeah, another guy came to me after you did. He's below decks.  It'll cut you fair in half. About that, I'll just let the guy who pays my expenses be happy. As for me, I like privacy. Who is this guy? Look, Toler, I didn't ask you any questions, did I? Well, I didn't ask him any. My racket coincidence is just another name for trouble. I wanted to get a look at and trade some words with my suddenly acquired fellow passenger, but he wasn't having any. He stuck to his cabin, claiming seasickness. However, from the native galley boy, I learned that he was eating like a horse, which in my book was a new way of being seasick. I borrowed a copy of Western Story Magazine from the skipper, crawled into my bunk, and let the kitty wake, rock me to sleep. The next morning and afternoon were as uneventful as they were beautiful. At sunset, we raised the island of Tinutan. All right, boys, here's where you gotta work. Ranger stood at his wheel, outfencing the submerged swords of coral with a slim prowl of the kitty wake. The ship had only inches of elbow room as we chewed our way through the boiling white passage of the reef. And my heart felt suddenly becombed as we finally achieved the peaceful waters of the lagoon, which it protected. Since Steve Granger looked like a hard man to scare, but what I saw up ahead on the beach would scare a hard man. The broken body of a shipwrecked purling lugger, and hanging from its foremask the elongated body of a native, who had been strangled out of one paradise and into another. Granger spun the wheel of starboard and the kitty wake started a retreat, but it wasn't that easy. I couldn't very well shake hands with him, though, because he had a gun in each one of them. What the devil sure came, Keely? I said, cut your part. Got it! If you don't, we could use a few less natives around here. Hey, by the clock, clock! You can't stop the other two I can. I told them there was a crazy man aboard and to go over the side. They decided to protect me. They didn't make it. Now lay this rowboat in close to the beach and drop your hook. We're staying. Two guns and what was left of 12 bullets had me outnumbered. I decided the best thing I could do was stay quiet and stay alive. And apparently the skipper felt the same way. After we dropped anchor, Keely heard us into the small boat and we rode him ashore. His gun shoved us up a path, threw a grove of neeper ponds and into a clearing. First natives I saw there were even deader than the ones we had just left on the kitty wake. About a dozen of them in a semicircle. And what added up to the red-crusted craters on the naked withering bodies was sticking out of a window in a small wooden tin roofed hut. The water-cooled barrel of a 30-caliber machine gun. South Sea Island magic, huh? It can be changed. Now come on inside, both of you. Shooting over the water? What's the matter? Big trouble you have getting here? Yeah, no, Portez, a little one. This big blonde guy's the skipper. We got his boat and it's a good one. This other one, he's an insurance investigator. Oh, see. Yeah, Portez, I'm your new nursemaid. Insurance company sent me out here to look you up and take care of you. I hope I get around to it. My way. Hey, Keely, what's that you say you got my boat? Yeah, don't worry, big boy. We're gonna pay you for it. We might even go as high as $500. Well, that's great. It's only worth $50,000. Oh, having 500 alive is better than $50,000 dead, my friend. What's your pitch? Simple. We want off this island. We've got a long way to go. Portez, me and the native girl. She's in the next room. We may have to stay and see for a couple of months. Not on my ship.  Hey, you woman, get back in there. No, I stay. Really? Put her away. Keep her out of here. Oh, my God. Got a pretty name. Papa Liar. Well, dollar, you've seen yourself a South Sea island princess. She's your date, Keely, not mine. Boy, dollar, they do look like they were meant for each other. Save your one for your sails, Granger. Now, what about your boat? Do we get it with a bill of sail or without one? Either way's all right with me. If you'll take what goes... Portez out of the room with nature girl. Granger's move looked like a good one. I was halfway across the room to make a two against one for the right side when the odds snapped back to even money again. Portez came rushing back to join the play. And he started fighting when he was five yards away. Just about then, nature girl came charging out of her quarters, bringing a chair over her head. I'd just gotten in position to shoot a right hand at Keely's chin when another shot from Portez's gun put me strictly on my own. Port Granger squirreled in the forehead and he went down without a sound. I had time for one more try. Keely's chin telegraphed a knockout message. Da-da-da, da-da-da, KO, bank up my arm. But something was wrong. I passed out. In just a moment, we'll return to the second act of Johnny Dollar. But first, 50,000 or more always in the jackpot on Sing It Again. Music by Gene Autry and Vaughn Monroe. Music and thrills with gangbusters, Philip Marlowe, Johnny Dollar and Danny Clover, the Broadway cop. That's the one-way ticket to top fun on most of these CBS stations every Saturday night. This fall, when you hear them all on CBS, Saturday nights promise top music, top adventure, and a chance at radio's top prize. Now, with our star, Charles Russell, we return to the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. It was a beautiful dream while it lasted. It wasn't night, it was morning. I was in a hammock slung between two banyan trees, framed in hibiscus bushes.  A tame parrot was feeding me toasted pumpkin seeds. As a smooth-skinned, soft-skinned, kafayole-skinned, half-caste, and all-woman-type girl, gazed into my eyes and cooled softly in my ear. This doll would make Dorothy Lamour look like an Irish washerwoman, and a boot she was wearing a short sarong. Oh, poor, poor man. Please, wake up. Hey, it wasn't a dream. It was really happening. Everything was there. Oh, but the parrot and his lousy pumpkin seeds, and who needed him? Oh, poor, poor man. Please, do wake up. Oh, where am I? Studio One? Who are you? I thought you were talking in my sleep. I am Buddha. Oh, this is awful. Awful? Yeah, this all reminds me. My copy of Tales of the South Pacific is 17 days overdue at the Hartford Public Library. How? Forget it. Where am I? What am I doing here? And then, who are you? I am Buddha. You were brought here by the princess Papalaya from the village of Great Death. Oh, well, that place isn't hard to remember. I wish I could forget it. The princess! The one with the droopy ears, the long feet, the flat nose, the pot belly, the bad complexion, and dirty hair? Yes, she is it. She's a doll. Last time I saw her, she was swinging a chair at my head. Oh, no.  She saved you. She liked you. She told me, save you for her.  Why didn't she hit me over the head with a chair? Hey, you speak pretty fair English. Where'd you pick it up? My father was Chinese merchant on island of New Guinea. Same time as the war. You like Jiay? I certainly do. Sorry, I didn't bring a Hershey bar. But tell me, why did the princess Papaya, whatever her name is, why did she save me?  Oh, stop saying that. All I want to know is, what was she doing with Kylian Portez? You know Kylian Portez, don't you? Yes, I know them. They bad. I work in village until they make the Great Death. They kill all their friends and many natives. They bad. Oh, now we're getting somewhere. What was that all about? They died for Pearl here for a long time. The native boy, they do not like these men.  So these bad men steal all Pearl first, then they steal Princess to make Pearl die some more. Oh, kidnap, ransom, more Pearls. What is this, ransom? That means they'll hold the princess and won't give her back until they get what they want. But dream girl, for me, a scheme like that wouldn't work for a girl like you. Oh. Now, just holding you would be getting what I want. Only one thing wrong, my knees were getting a little knobby, thanks to a combination of insects and my new white linen shorts. However, Punta was good nerve medicine. The rest of the story came out later.  She crew me to sleep with the facts that the natives had tried to rescue their princess from Keely and Portez, which gave me an answer for that semicircle of machine gun bodies outside their shack. Also that the princess had taken temporary refuge up on the hills. As nearly as I could figure out, I was left facing a very peculiar problem. Two men, out of six insured men, had killed the other four. And the two murderous survivors had this much going for them. To the insurance company, they were still worth $50,000 apiece on the hoof, which meant that my job was to keep alive two guys I felt very much like killing. And believe me, they felt the same about me. And with these beautiful, happy, restful thoughts, I left the call for darkness and went back to sleep. And who do you think I wound up with in my dreams? That hokey old parrot in his lousy pumpkin seeds. Time to get up. Huh? Oh. Hurry from your sleep, Johnny, there is more trouble. Hey, somebody's getting strapped. What's going on?  My people trying to fight them off the island, but they are being killed. Now you must go and lead my people, help them kill those bad men. This you won't understand, gorgeous, but my job is to stop your people and save Keely and Portez. Johnny, you say that now? You are one of them. No, I'm not one of them. I told you I wouldn't understand. There's something I don't understand. Why don't they leave? They've got what they want. Why don't they pick up their pearls and the schooner and the rotten hides and get out of here? Johnny, they do not have the pearl. Here, see, this one is for you. Black? Wow. You say for me, where to come from? The princess, she come back some time ago. She tell me she took all their pearl.  More like her too, just the way she is, up in the hills. Right now I wish you look like her. Johnny, you don't like the way I look like I am?  Why you say that? Because if you did look like her, I think I'd have an idea that would stop those men. Yeah. Turn around. Yes, Johnny. Oh, this will be the crime of the year, but maybe I can do it. And I did. I gave Punta a thorough loss of beauty treatment. With the help of padding, dye, mud and other jungle cosmetics, I had at the end of an hour a reasonable facsimile of papalaya, the unpretious princess in the history of royalty. I briefed the suddenly ugly-fied Punta on what she was to do and had her lead me most of the way back to the fortress shack and the clearing. She put a few words on the jungle grave vine and by the time they reached the end, the native side of the battle, the home team, seized activities. Hey, Keely, for chance, time, cut, hold it. There's nobody here to shoot at but me and I want to talk. The princess, I want to make a trade. You'll get the princess and the pearls.  Who's supposed to believe you got the princess? You don't have to but here's something you can believe. You'll never get it this way. Sooner or later you're going to run out of ammunition or food or water or everything at once. We still don't know you got the princess. You'll see her when you're out of that shack and on the boat. Nobody's asking you to take me until dawn to get the princess down out of the hills. The job is to keep you two guys alive and save the company I'm working for for a hundred thousand dollars. You got a deal. And that ain't all you're going to get, I hope. I hit the beach two hours before dawn with punter ready to paddle me out to the kitty wake in a native canoe. I wanted to be there with all weapons handy when Keely and Portez stuck their heads up over the rail. But it seems they had thought of that too. When we hit the sand, there they were in the small boat halfway out to the mooring. There they are. They spoil everything. They stay out of sight, won't they? Yeah, they spoil everything, but not for long. One thing for sure, I can't use the canoe. Tell me something, are there sharks in this lagoon? No, not many. I hope traffic is light tonight. I'm going to chance it. Okay, Portez, you better stay here. I'm going a few hundred yards out the beach and swim for it. Johnny, be careful. Oh, baby doll, you sound so pretty and you look so ugly. The water was warmer on the pool at the Hartford Y. Certainly not as much fun. I spent most of the trip trying to keep from splashing and watching for shark ridders around me. It was good in a way. Help me forget that I don't swim very well. Forty-five minutes later, I was still half alive, looking for a hand hole in the slimy waterline of the kitty wake on the seaward side. And there I stayed for the next hour and a quarter, listening to Keely and Portez on the other side of the boat, nursing their machine gun and waiting like I was for the dawn. Those glasses brought something else, if they were that good. I hopped on my heart, I lumped on my throat. I had to move faster than I figured to. I had to get into action while the retention was all on the approaching canoe and before they discovered that his passenger was not the princess, but her stand-in punter. I grabbed the gunnel, then the rail, cursing every drift that splashed back into the water of my body. I went slipping and sliding and thrushing across the deck. Keely was leaning forward, looking through the glasses, thighs against the rail, so I hit him first and sent him flying over the side. With or without a machine gun, Louis was a tough guy. But I had to be done to take care of Keely and saw that I was already being taken care of. With or without a machine gun, Louis was a tough guy. But I had to be done to take care of Keely and saw that I was already being taken care of. With a canoe paddle in the hands of an irate dame. Puta! Puta!  I want him alive! Princess Papa Liar had pulled a rank on Puta in demand that she be the one to come out to the ship and the canoe. Because as she kept telling me on the voyage back to New Guinea, she liked me. Well, she may have been awful ugly, but she was also an awful good sailor. And knowing the way to a sailor's heart, I bought her a present. Expense account, item four. Ten dollars. Tattooing job on the Princess Papa Liar's fat right shoulder. A picture of a ship on a full sail. So now when she laughs, it goes bounding over the waves. Expense account, item five. Forty dollars. Long winded cable to seven seas maritime underwriters. That's you gentlemen. Recommending immediate cancellation of policies covering the lives of Keely and Portez, who were in the hands of the New Guinea officials and looking forward to a short life and an unmerry one. Item six. Eight hundred and thirty one dollars and eighty one cents. Three and a half shillings. Airfare. Port Moresby to Hartford. Item seven. Forty eight cents. Pass due charges at two cents per day. Hartford Public Library. On my copy of Tales of the South Pacific. Incidentally, I never did get around to reading.  Expense account total thirty two hundred and eighty six dollars and forty four cents. Assigned yours from truly Johnny Dollar. Yours truly Johnny Dollar is produced and directed by Gordon T Hughes and stars Charles Russell. Script by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd. Featured in the cast were Mary Schiff, DJ Thompson, Tom Holland, Clark Gordon, Willard Waterman and Larry Dobbkin. The special music is written and conducted by Leith Stevens. Your announcer is Paul Masterson. Be sure to be with us at the same time next week when another unusual expense account is handed in by yours truly Johnny Dollar. Who's got the nation's most popular band, Vaughn Monroe? And who's the nation's most popular singing band leader, Vaughn Monroe again? Now who brings you a caravan of the nation's most popular tunes every Saturday night over most of these same CBS stations? You guessed it, it's Vaughn Monroe. That's why everyone listens on Saturday nights to the Vaughn Monroe show on CBS where this fall you hear them all. Stay tuned now for Vaughn Monroe and his caravan who follow immediately on most of these stations. This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System.