 Okay, I want to call the meeting of the Arlington Finance Committee to order. First order of business is the minutes. Do we have any questions or corrections? Paul, article 38, are there any other corrections? Dean? Okay, on article 38 of the last time, if we're managing the defense fund of our front annual appropriation, I agree with you on a seat of 10 or 15. Well, a seat of 10 or 16. I don't know. Yeah. I was looking at that two things. I think it's only 16, not 16. Yeah, I think it is. That's it. Change the point, sir. But where is this now? But see the line, this is article 39. Survivors look great above it. So we're going to change that to 1616. I thought that was a little high. Yeah. About three years, we'd be bankrupt too, but you know. Okay, are there any other corrections? David? Okay, so add a plus after the 25. You see that, Peter? Okay, any, any others? Paul? Okay, any others? Okay. All those who have a motion to accept the minutes is corrected. Second moved and seconded. All those in favor of accepting the minutes is corrected. Please say aye. Opposed? Okay, done. They're here. Okay. Hi. Welcome back. Was there an appropriation last year for this? Okay. Okay. Well, welcome back for our new people. Angela was on the finance committee for many years. Then she abandoned us. Okay. Could you please tell us? So we sort of accepted or got involved in this last year. What's happened between last year and this year as far as activities and what did you do with the money? And what are you planning to do with the money? And Lexington, Lincoln and Concord. And we had started this probably a few years ago anyway. And we had a corridor management plan and all of that. We had a little bit of a low, but within the last year or two, we picked the project back up again. And we had, did have at the time a grant and a partnership with MAPC to get the organization done. So that was part of, you know, what we were looking for the funds for last year. We have a memorandum of understanding, I think, which everybody was given last year. And we got the organization all set up. And so the current project now is to work on branding and getting a logo. And so think of it kind of a little bit like the signage project that we did with ATED, you know, where we have to get the design done and then later on we'll be looking to put that design into things. So we're not alone. We put in $5,000 and the rest of, if you agree, the other three towns also put in $5,000. And the National Park Service puts in $500. We did apply for a grant we didn't get to work with MAPC again, so we're on our own. And the town of Lexington is acting as the fiscal agent. I'm sure the town of Lexington. Lexington is the fiscal agent. We had hoped it was going to be MAPC, but we're not able to work with them right now because we didn't get the funding. So this furthers, and we should just say, you know, ATED was formed partly in support of the battle road scene at Byway when this project all started. And so, you know, this is just furthering the increase in visitorship to Arlington. And it's good because it's a partnership with the other three towns. And are you expecting to, how often have you met with them? They meet, I haven't been able to attend recently because they meet during the day. I was more active when we were doing the MOU about Clarissa and Howard Winkler, both on the committees still. Generally it's close to once a month, because it was the planning to get the proposal out to get the design. And we do have a scope of work now to do the design. We were supposed to be having some meetings that were going to be a kickoff to getting some more input and all of that. And it was just a meeting, it's supposed to be last week and it had to be postponed. So yeah, there's frequent and regular meetings now. Okay, are the designs for signs? Yep, they'll be for, yep, that too. The design is going to be for logo and branding. We're going to have to change our signs so we're going to put it up next. No, no, these will be Byway signs. So these will be different. Letterhead template, we're going to have a website and then logos for signage and gateway and all of that. So you're putting up a website? There will be, yeah, I mean all of this obviously will be coming, you know, so we're just working through all the phases to get that done. But we have to get the design work done first. Byway, everybody speak up a little bit about this ridiculous thing. Ready to shut that off now on. Well, that was probably, I honestly said to apologize because I've been in the music the last year. So we worked on the Memorandum of Understanding before and so this is the next phase now that we have that to get the branding done. Sorry, because it doesn't match what this said. Clarissa wasn't able to attend tonight either and she has been a little more involved with this part of it than I have. Okay, I'm sorry, I was turning off the thing. What's the problem? It's for establishing a permanent management entity. Which I think is probably what it said last year. Yeah. It's last, yeah, and it didn't get updated then. I mean this project is part of it. Certainly we did the Memorandum of Understanding and this is establishing the signage. It would probably be okay. You know, you can ask for an appropriation and supportive activities. What you might want to do is have somebody just give Marie or Fran or somebody or anything. So I can go to the office and see if they could just cross off a couple of lines. Okay. That referred to the establishment. Management, yes, because that was last year's project. Yeah. If not, I guess talk to John Rione and see the moderator and see if he has any problem with it. Okay. Okay, Alan and then Kel. I want to mention that you already have one or something. I've pulled it off a few years ago. It's called Hercules. So it's providing us some words and pictures. For the Biway? Oh, those are not for the Biway. For ATED. For ATED. Yes, yep, yep. Just for Biway. Yeah, this will be the Biway website. Okay. Thanks, girl. Did you establish the permanent management entity? Yes. Yeah. We have a Memorandum of Understanding now between the town and the park service. Yeah. We have a whole established committee and everything. Okay. Welcome. The government with a $4 trillion budget gives you $500. Towns give you $5,000. Biway belongs to us and the park service supports it. Thank you, Peter. What are the three other towns? Lexington, Lincoln and Concord. Okay. And I assume, you know, the goal is to bring more tourism to the whole area. Absolutely. Okay. Yep. Okay, there are any other questions? Yeah. Okay. Can I just say that I want to thank you all again for voting for the funds for the Visitor Center. Just on an ATED topic that, you know, we had it open for about a month after town day and we got a really great response. I'm just going to turn the TV out. Yeah. I didn't do the winterization, but yeah. Yeah. Well, it seemed to be in a good spot. I understand you couldn't put it up on Mass Ave. Yeah. No, but this turned out to be the best location because we get a lot of traffic off the bike path and we get people going to the bike path. So it was really great. So we're looking forward to having it open for the full season this year. So whenever the snow melts, we can do that. Is that your goal just sort of whenever the snow melts? Well, yeah. I mean, I'm hoping for it. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, exactly. It could be open to town day again. I mean, you know, all hope is April. We'll have to see how it goes because we wanted to have it open before Patriots Day. So, you know, we could promote the history and everything and we'll just have to see how it goes. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Oh, I'm sure. Okay. Yep. I'll sign it. It's interesting. I have to be very honest with you. I was driving for one day and I never did the Schwab. It was probably like half a mile to my house. So it was pretty interesting. The sign was like right there. Yeah. Well, that's where it is. Yeah. But I wasn't, I mean, I remember we flashed together and we were going to sign again and stuff like that. So I saw one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have the ones that were appropriated for the first phase are all up. Okay. So that was the, you know, the end of that, because you guys said no last year to the second phase and we chose, you know, not to come back this year to ask again. So just if you haven't seen them. So there's, we have two at the Dallin Museum. So the one in the front on Mass Ave. And if you're coming off the bike path, you get one with an arrow pointing, you know, so behind the visitor center there. We have three for the old Schwab now. So we have the one in Mass Ave, Love because now they have no problem. They just tell people come down Mass Ave. And when you see the sign, take the fork. And they've also been getting people off the bike path because they've got a sign on the bike path too. Plus the one at the top of Lowell Street. So we've got those. And then we've got two with the Jason Russell house. So there's the one on Mass Ave. And then there's also one on Jason Street. They sort of guide you through the entrance and the fence. So we've gotten good responses from everybody. So we're looking forward at some point, you know, to seeing if we can do the second phase. Oh, you've got this one though? Never mind. We've got to go now. I just fought over a one. Yeah, yeah. We do have, I should mention too, we do actually have one that's not up and that will be for the visitor center. We were waiting, we'll have to talk to Mike probably, but we're waiting for them to fix the, you know, the bike path is going to come off the sidewalk and stuff. So we were waiting for them to finish that before we put that sign up. Anything else? Any questions? Okay. Well, thank you. Good to see you again. Thanks. Come back any time. Thanks. See you, Tom Media. Okay. Got to see him. Okay. Well, why don't we take this one? A request for an appropriation of $5,000 to continue the work of the highway between the four towns and the National Park Service. What's the will of the committee? Thank you. Okay. We'll second it in any discussion. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Okay. Let me, let's go to Article 30. Let me see if I'm trying to just sort of wrap up as many routine stuff as possible. Article 30 is the, okay, is there's four parts, the Veterans Day Parade Memorial Observation and Patriot State Celebration. The manager's recommending the same amount, $5,667. County Celebration is zero, just a place to transfer money, which to my recollection, we've never done. Display of American flags on Mansab. Again, that's all he's taken care of privately. That placing of American flags on grades of veterans, 4,500. So that's the same as we've appropriated before. The last one, D, is a state mandate. So putting flags on veterans. So it would be A, 5,667, B and C are zero, and D is American flags, 4,500. Do I have a motion? Okay. Moved and seconded. Are there any questions? Okay. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. So that's 5,667 plus 4,500. All right, so I should go ahead up to 10,167. Okay, now Article 31 is appropriations from miscellaneous. There's really two parts to this. Thank you. The first part is a legal defense fund. To replenish the legal defense fund, no money has been requested, which is the same as been the last several years. And then the indemnification of medical costs, the request is for 8,500. This is for police officers and firefighters who they've used up all of their private insurance, Medicare, whatever they have. And after they've gone through and used up all of their other alternatives, then the town can take care of those costs. So A is zero and B is 8,500. Are there any questions? Paul? Okay. So is this after the fact anyway? So we don't have to budget for more than we actually need. I think it's after the fact. In other words, these are from cost incurred during the previous year. And so I'm not sure where they get the balance. Probably out of some miscellaneous account. But the request is for 8,500. Okay, do I have a motion? Second. Second. Okay. All those in favor of 0 and 8,500 for Article 31, please say aye. Opposed? Anonymous? Is it zero for out-of-state travel too? Because it's in the middle of that. We didn't appropriate anything last year. Peter, isn't there out-of-state in the select manager's budgets? I'm sorry? Yeah, there's an out-of-state travel in the manager's budgets of 3,000. So I think probably the article is old. Yeah. Okay. I mean, we could do it there, but it's in the manager's budget. Okay, are there any other questions? Okay. Now, on Article 29, I won't call a vote because the recycling committee is coming in in a few minutes. And there were some questions there. By the way, if anybody's a little more mechanical than I am and wants to try turning this thing off, I thought I had it, but... Okay. I know there's a tool down here that we can use as well. Okay, the Arlington... Gloria has called all of the different groups. So the historic commission is 2160, same as last year. The historic district commissions is 5100. That's the same as last year. Capital planning is zero. Commission on disability is 3,000. Recycling is 3,000. Human Rights Commission is 4,500. Arlington Tourism Economic Development is 1775. Vision 2020 last year was 3,000. And Transportation Advisory last year was 15. And apparently this year they're asking for zero. So, Gloria, do you know if anybody's here yet? They are. Okay. Why don't we have them come in? We need to get more women on the pink com. Just saying. Have a seat before you get in too much more trouble. Wait a minute. It's not on both sides. It's only one side that has a thing. Well, you could have filled up the back with something. I'll just know. So... Call the plan out. You're on. Okay, I'll just share. Your question is... I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. You're on. You were requested to basically tell us what you've done with the recycling committee appropriation and what you plan to do. I think a couple of people had some questions. Okay, okay. So, thank you for having us in. I'm Gordon Jamison. Julie Brazil. And we're the co-chairs of the recycling committee. And we're going to do a little song and dance up here for you. The first thing I'd like to say is it's really nice to be on a committee where the citizens of town have an interest. And that can be measured by the number of Web site hits by the question and answer center estimated on a one month extrapolated to a year. The recycling committee is number one in town. I mean the cycling and trash. 100,000 hits per year. The treasurer, fire and police run about 40. The clerk about 30 and parking 20. Everybody else is in there. Small numbers. How many go to the finance committee site? That was small numbers. The manager actually wasn't on a list that I saw either. This is all Q and A. Joan didn't have time to do the other stuff for us. So recycling appears to be of great interest to our residents based upon these numbers. Julie? So as most of you probably know, the DPW and the recycling coordinator working with the town manager really set the policy for trash and recycling in town. We are sort of charged when town meeting created us to jump in and be looking for new actions and new programs and new ideas that can sort of help drive down tonnage or increase recycling. And our mission is really very specific that we should focus on expanding recycling, educating and advocating about recycling and conducting research and programs to increase participation. And information, getting information and ideas, and it has to flow both ways. So we work with DPW and citizens who come in with ideas and try to make sure that it's all, that we're sort of hitting all the points together and in a coordinated fashion. And we were very lucky, despite all of the snow, to get to meet with, bring Mr. Rademacher in to meet with the committee and really have a good dialogue a couple weeks ago. And that's good for the committee, just to have that connection. And my turn. And as you recall, given the results obtained over the last 10 years, and that's the handout there, this partnership has succeeded in reducing our solid waste tonnage by over 30%. And with an estimated total net savings for the town over that period of over $2.5 million. Historically, these reductions have taken place in a stepwise fashion. Most recently with the change in contractor in the move to the three barrel limit in mandatory recycling. So if you don't put out recycling with your trash, your trash test will disappear. And you have a limit of three barrels. Very few, just to clarify on that, very few households use three barrels or more. This resulted in essentially a stepwise function, an immediate reduction of about 2,000 tons per year with accruing an additional $150,000 of annual savings, which was in part of that number I mentioned before. Julie? What we've noticed though is that after you make a change and you get the drop, it takes some time to really solidify it. And in fact, in the past two years, we've noticed that trash has been creeping back up. And we really attribute that, mostly to increased population and turnover and just the economy, people are buying more and there's more trash being disposed of. But the fact that we're launching back up again is a concern and something that we're really focused on. So we want to really be entrepreneurial and DPW has to do what they do. We have more of an opportunity to try new things and be a little more energetic or aggressive in some of our ideas. So we focus a lot on information and knowledge. We've done a series of articles in The Advocate and they are archived online for all those people who are looking for information about how to recycle more effectively and we know they do. Because we want people to think beyond just the curbside program, we're never going to drive the numbers down if it's just a loop in for household with some bottles and cans and newspapers. And then we really need to work on special projects, going out and talking to people. So Town Day and our collection days in the spring and the fall, which had become increasingly popular. How many cars was it last time? 600 cars in four hours, which almost exceeds our ability to unload them efficiently. And an ever-increasing mix of things that people can bring with them. What should their joy? Right and we expand and that's one of the things that we can do to pay for a pilot. We can say, well, you know, people really hate Styrofoam. So let's, we out of our budget can pay for the Styrofoam collection, which doesn't save the town a lot of money because Styrofoam is light. So it's not a tip-fee issue, but if we're going to get people in the habit of reducing their volume of trash and putting in barrel limits, big pieces of Styrofoam would be bulky. And so we need to sort of, as a community, build new habits and that's what we can really help our budget to do. In addition, there are, and then the compost bins, which is something that we came to you all about several years ago. We put a significant piece of our budget every year into subsidizing compost bins so that they're cheaper for people to purchase to encourage residential composting as much as we can. So our budget really breaks down into those categories. We put money into the collection days so that it's visible and we're solving concrete problems for people. Composting, which is an important community effort that we need to all work on. And then promotional projects, just different ones over time to develop interest and energy around recycling issues. Because different people respond to different stimuli. Some people like the website, some people like this year we're doing an art thing in the town hall around town meeting. So on the composting side where we came back to you a couple years ago, I talked to the Charlotte Milan, the recycling coordinator and over the past 10 years about 100 bins per year have been purchased. In the last six years we've been subsidizing about 40 bins. So those of you who are longtime members, as Julie mentioned when we came here the last time to have our budget go from 1,800 to 3,000 it was predicated on working on composting which is something that until we develop a town-wide system for developing kitchen waste like used to exist 50 or 60 years ago when the pig farms came around and collected things that's something that we can really work out that takes a significant portion of weight out of the trash stream it being about 25% of our existing residential solid waste. That's the kitchen waste, compostable kitchen waste. So during the life of our enhanced composting subsidy program which I think is about six years old now we've invested at least $6,000 in that and we determined in the calculation that was run here that was positive but that basically has an ROI of one year. So that means that $6,000 has netted about $21,000 in return in saved costs at the incinerator and after we do this year's program that will be $7,000 and the ROI will be $28,000. So I think we're doing and that would pay for our whole budget. So we're doing things that are inventive, that are public and also are grass tax. So part of our focus of course is on saving the town money driving down the costs to dispose of the trash but then sort of positioning ourselves for state grants. There's a lot of money out there not a lot. There is money out there that Arlington doesn't yet get its hands on and we're working with the recycling coordinator and DPW to do what we can to sort of build interest. If we can do our own residential composting pilot program that will identify people who would be then eligible to jump into a state program that they would really put some money into. So all of which has to build. And the Collection Day builds a foundation upon which another state program called Charm would be another positive check box. Once we get four boxes then we start to really get the money. So there's interesting programs that the state is now putting enough money into that it would be worth some effort and energy. So basically we work with over the years with the Board of Selectmen and the town manager and DPW and town meeting and all of the enthusiastic people who live in town to try and solve the problem. Waste and recycling is an issue that everyone has to deal with and helping people think about it in better ways and proactively bringing programs out and starting conversations. We feel like it's an important contribution to the town's sort of bottom line. There's some good results. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what we have to say. Okay. Questions. Christine. Last year we created a new position that we're funding $2,000 recycling coordinators. Why can't we expect those recycling coordinators to do everything that we describe in your community? So first thing is that position has been around the person occupying that position because I just went back through our notes. The position was not created last year. We moved it from part-time to full-time. Okay. Well, that's a different, that's different than creating the position, correct? Dean. She said we spent $1,000. Yeah. Okay. So the position has been around for more than one year. Four or five years. Okay. If you didn't have the hard work, so these events just don't happen without volunteers. And our ability to, you know, to add to the collection day thing that didn't happen without our revenues. And she can't do everything she needs to do. She has lots of responsibility. She has to answer the phone. She has to go out and find out people who are not within the three-barrel limit. She has to try to control the commercial pay-as-you-throw program. People who are scoff laws along Mass Avenue. She has to try to do a, what is the thing she's doing? Oh, she's been asked to do an audit. An audit. There's no way to actually tell if the trash, if JRM is living up to there under the bargain and enforcing recycling and enforcing trash limits if you don't actually ride along. And that's time-consuming. But we can't, we have to have the information. And certainly not can be able to use special programs we do at EcoFast last year and this year with the art show. And all those things cost some money. And so we have a very small budget, $3,000 within a $140 million budget. So our job is to support her efforts. Amplify. As far as her work goes, you should talk to the town manager, the director of DQD, about her work. We think she does doing a spectacular job and her work is worth everything. That's not my question. What is it that you're doing and what does it cost you that you think, at least, is inappropriate for the recycling coordinator to handle? I don't know if it's inappropriate to the right word, but I certainly, she's one person. So what is it that you do and how much does those actions, that work that you do, how much do those tasks cost that you say at the recycling, the almost full-time... Well, most of it's volunteer work, the substituting of the compost bins... Right, but what's the cost associated with the volunteer work? That would be free, right? Well, not the compost bins. I mean, that's actual... The compost bin, we actually put money out to help people buy compost bins and that has a very high ROI. And why couldn't the town do that? In fact, the town is doing it through you. Why couldn't the town just more directly do that? Talk to the town manager, the director of DPW. It's not for a question for me to answer. Dean? Yeah, I mean, Gordon, and it's just sort of fine with what Christine's saying. I don't think most of our questions tonight are directed at you, really. I think we're more trying to gather information for when we get to the DPW budget. I think we're not people to ask about that. No, you're not, but we have to... I think we have to just sort of go through the process to get the information and understand what you're doing and things like that, because I think the challenge we have right now is... And this is more just a discussion on questions. I think I can short... No, no, wait, let me finish. I'll just use Al's grade. It's above my pay grade. Right, no, I'm not going to... What I'm saying is I think what we have now is, you know, we had a 10-year run when we had pretty great things happen on the... on the trash. Right, we decreased our solid waste treatment, all the things that you had... What was the point in there when we came for those bins where I wondered whether we were ever going to get a drop? I get it. I get it. No, I understand. And I think we... So we've had a great run. We've hit a plateau. We had a meeting last year with the town manager where one of the things he said, and this is... So you understand where we're coming from. He had said, you know, if we move this part-time position up to full-time, we're going to see the drop continue. And he listed all these things that were going to happen. It takes time, Dean. I know. But what I'm saying is I think we're trying... We were so much skeptical that the effort can be put behind the reduction at the time, so I think we're just trying to follow up and understand different things. I mean, it's not a criticism of you guys. I hope you don't think about it in that sense. I'm personally interpreting that way just so you know. You are or not? I am interpreting it as criticism of you. No, I don't. I think it is. That's why I feel like I wanted to explain it to you. I mean, I think it's trying to... Because one of the examples I'd give you, Gordon, we've talked for a while about, you know, the apartment buildings being the next. The large building complex is being the place where we have opportunities to, you know, increase recycling and things like that. The town manager had told us last year that this position would get right on that. And so what we're trying... I think that's probably what we're trying to... So you have one person stretched 20 different ways, and she could only do so much. And she... So... And since she has been... She was doing something that was basically untenable from our perspective, trying to accomplish things that were untenable based upon the amount of time she had, okay? And now she's been moved up. She's still not even full-time. So I'm not... Yeah, look, I'm not trying to argue it. And she's only been in that position for a little over a half a year. I'm not trying to argue it. What I'm saying is I think we're trying to figure out, at least from a cost perspective, what the next steps are to get to the next level of decrease. Okay, so those are the types of things we talked to Mr. Rademacher about. Okay, and we have some ideas, and we tend to be... I personally tend to be rather pushy on those. Charlotte actually is quite aggressive, and what she thinks we can be done. But there's politics in this. If we go down to two barrels, which I think is very doable, I think that would be incorporated into the program readily. If we went to one barrel, I think the Board of Selectments phones would light up, and then we'd be dead for three years. Right? I mean, this is the way it works in this town. I mean, if those types of things happen, then you don't want to do that. So you want to be able to incrementally increase so that people, most of the town, all but one percent of the households should be able to go to two barrels based upon the Vision 2020 survey that was held a couple of years ago. Maybe I could try to answer the question this morning. She could probably be softer than me. I have over ten years in this, and many of you haven't been on this committee that long. I've had some time to think. Obviously, we can't solve all of those problems, and that's not our job to tackle how Charlotte's time, how the recycling board and her time is allocated. But we, our work in the coming year, we envision spending $1,000 on a composting pilot program. We know that the state has a plan which Arlington isn't quite ready to take on itself. We need a little time to organize it. But if we spend our money buying bins and organizing some community composting and working on sort of a new idea, we'll be attracting people who would then potentially be interested in signing up for the two-year commitment that the state is looking for. So that's a way we can spend our money to move Arlington one step closer. If we spend that money, it doesn't have to come out of DPW's budget. We'll try it. It's just $1,000. And then it's sort of easier. We've done that over the years. We funded out of our budget the big cardboard bins, which was wildly successful and unpopular in various combinations over the years. And so they were eventually taken away when we solved the problem by picking up cardboard or conveniently curbside. But if we can throw money into the pool based on our ideas and our energy and what we think people will participate in, then we can do that for a couple of years. And then if it's successful, DPW does take it into their budget. Over time, we've proposed new things that we pay for out of our budget at Collection Day. If they become successful, they're built into the system. But that pilot program concept is a way that we can take a relatively small amount of money and try things. And I think that's an advantage. Bring in volunteers and new energy. And it's always good, especially if you're in a volunteer situation, no matter what group I work with here in town, if you can institutionalize a process over the term after doing something on a volunteer basis with some support financially, that means it's locked in. So before, we worked very hard to get a recycling coordinator. And having that person makes the community so much more effective, because we can focus on these pushing the envelope of entrepreneurial activities, which is what we've done, and then have the support of someone who can help us implement those and give us feedback from DPW. And the brainstorming there together was, okay, I do community composting with my neighbors across the street. I'm single, I don't have a compost bin, I'll admit it, but the people across the street are all over it, so I bring my kitchen waste and an old coffee boulders can over to their compost and dump it in there. So the idea is that, well, my idea was, why don't we do that broadly and come to you for $30,000? And Charlotte said, well, you can do that now. So Charlotte said, you can do that now. With your compost thing, this year or next year, as Julie mentioned, what we would hope to do is maybe give someone a bin. But you have to have four to six people that are gonna do it with you, and then you have to report back at six months and 12 months out, and that gives us an idea of whether we can have community composting in some parts, maybe not in all parts of town, but in some parts of town, and that would leverage even that $1,000 four to six times. So those are the types of things we're looking at, and eventually what's gonna happen is we're gonna have kitchen waste pick up door to door. That's when that might happen. But we can help provide the access to these ideas, and we may come back to you next year and say we want $30,000 so we can buy X number of bins of 50 bucks a piece and give those to people like this because that's actually gonna have a really high return on investment. But we'd only do that after we have some data to tell you that it's worthwhile, and that's what we can do in our programs. John? Just to try to calm you down from there, I want to tell you that I think that what your community has done over the years is just bad. Thank you, John. You've saved us all kinds of money, and you shouldn't take what people are saying here as criticism. It's not. We're just trying to understand if we don't understand what's going on with that coordinator. But I have a question. Well, I have another station. From our perspective, she's extremely valuable to the process. Two of those bins, and I produce marvelous Yukon gold tomatoes, potatoes every year from composting. The committee would love to have you bring them and share them with us. But you said something a little while ago that they quite understand. How is it that the contractor can, you know, the JORM, how is it that they can... How come there's no feedback on how much recycling and whatnot gets that they claim? I would think we'd get the... We do get the reports on that. What we don't know is if they're actually enforcing our town rule, which is if you don't have recycling out, they don't take your trash. And the only way you actually know that is to do an audit. Or is someone who's a commercial producer not using the orange bags? The other thing that an audit gives you and another important piece of data is it tells us how many people are maxed out. How many people really are putting out three full barrels in a teeny tiny amount, a token amount of recycling. Because that tells us, you know, probably those people could be... If we dropped it to two barrels or one barrel over time, they could probably adjust by putting out more recycling and working a little harder to sort their trash out. And when we talk about barrels and things, these are all driven by not only the desire to reduce the tonnage by squeezing the amount that you can put out so that people with more in the recycling bin are also driven by DEPW mandates. We have to get to what we would call 50% diversion, but another 2,000 ton reduction by 2020 and by 2050 we have to be down to practically to one barrel, basically half barrel per household. Because we have to have made an 80% reduction in our trash from a couple years ago. What we have to is maybe stretching it. It's an ambitious goal that the state has set. For long term. But that's where the money is. The closer we are to meeting those goals and the more interested we are in trying, that's where the money is for the new programs and the expanded programs that will enable it to happen. And the state-tuned aspect of this are these things we just talked to Charlotte about really for the first time in January, these new programs, the state that our work has really laid the foundation for the town to be aggressive in pursuit of those extra funds. And so there's a potential for us to have, you know, significant monies coming in for revenues to help support additional aspects of collection that would happen year round. Do pilot composting, 400 family composting things where they help support the start-up of that. If we get four things we now qualify, have enough points to get significant money that's, you know, it's in the tens of thousands of dollars potentially. We could grow that over the time. We think $18,000 is pretty good. I think these people think that $18,000, you know, $30,000 is a lot of money too. But if that's revenue, especially they can go in to drive and support staff, come this is going to be extra staff time because of the nature of some of these collection things. But if that can be self-sufficient and then still reduce our tonnage, then it's a win-win like we've tried to work in the past. So thank you, John. Thank you. Carol? What are the four areas that we need to touch upon in order to start qualifying for that money? There's actually more than four. So two of them we already do. It's a complicated program and we've only gotten one, sort of one quick overview on it. It's something that DPW is aware of. The state recently increased the amount of money they would pay for communities to qualify and it suddenly got interesting. We used to be $300 a point now, it's $3,000 a point and at six points and eight points it starts to get interesting. We have to have at least six points to get a month. We don't have six points now. It's yard waste and hazardous waste get us part way there. We need one or two more things to qualify. Things like expanding collection days to a monthly program. Not as big necessarily, but a steady once a month collection and then a pilot, a compost pilot program would qualify and eventually reducing our trash limit down to one barrel would qualify. So things like that that we're already thinking about doing but we really want to be doing everything we can to get the town ready. So there's lots of balls in the air and again I would say that we're in an emuble position based upon the work that the committee together with D.W. and the coordinator have done over the many years that we've been involved in this and so we're very optimistic about not only continuing to tackle the problem of things creeping up again because the economy and our population is growing basic. I mean it is. And you can't expect to have zero trash growth with you have population that's growing leaps and bounds especially on the younger end. Okay, any other questions? Okay Stephen? I may have missed it earlier. What's the request this year? Three thousand. And then the second question Recycling Committee also deals with yard waste issues as well. When I say yard waste, the programs are November and has there ever been any thought after the curbside collection ends to have a central drop off for people who the leaves don't fall from the trees as quickly as this? The problem is the yard's not all that big and just the logistics of storage. The logistics of storage? I imagine in November and December there are some leaves that find their way into the barrels and it just seems to be something that comes up. But that's really not. Yeah, that's the end. And that's where the audit is helpful because if the JRM people are, that's a waste ban. Yard waste in the regular trash is a waste ban. It's against the law or the rules of the DEP and also the rules of the town of Arlington. And so that's where the audit is important because if JRM and I think they realize that we have a very observant community, these types of things on the list and things are reported quite quickly that so and so took cardboard and put it in a barrel. People watch the trash trucks out the window? I drove by one several years ago when we had the previous person group before JRM and they were taking cardboard that someone had done a masterful job of bundling into the right size and they were sticking in the trash truck and I asked them, why are you taking it? Well, it was a human nature thing. If the recycling truck doesn't take it for any reason they get called back and so they were just nipping that issue in the butt and so we had to constantly call the DPW who called the waste management or whatever to tell them no, stop doing that. These people have spent a lot of time. They come home, their trash is gone. They think they recycle. No, not so much. So that's why you always have to and you know the staff they have a staff that has lots of turnover that works probably from time to time in different towns under different situations sometimes with the double-sided trucks sometimes with the single-sided truck recycling they have a brand new separation facility they just open near town JRM is all about recycling. They love it the fact that we're in a recycling town and they'd love to help us be more because they really are a recycling company that collects trash. Okay, David I just have a it's a puzzle to me you say that the bylaw says that if you if you put out your rubbish and you don't put out recycling then suppose your rubbish would not be picked up That's a DPW a regulation. Okay, well I'm thinking on enforcement now let's say you put your recycling rubbish out and your rubbish is picked up before you recycle it so the truck comes up the street they don't know whether you put an empty barrel out or whether you you had a full barrel. You see what I mean? The enforcement part of that. But we don't enforce people aren't required to put out trash so if they pick up the trash first it doesn't change anything it's only if they pick up You aren't required, I don't put out trash all the time I sometimes run away Yeah, so someone picks up your trash first recycling first okay there's no trash bin out there next to the trash bin until the trash goes away I understand that but let's talk reality we're just going through a nasty winter and we're not through with it and the wind has been out of place I live on a hill similar to where you live on a hill I know you do and I've been chasing my barrels so finally I gave up and put it in especially with the wind I think as a winner the situation is there's a little dispensation knowing the fact that just the ability to go around and collect but in the summertime the deal is If you get a thunderstorm or windstorm it's been background so how do you enforce something that when someone says well I can put it up but it's empty they can send the trash trucks out a half hour on the same route before the recycling but that's what Charlotte drives around routes and she drives around and she's looking for the places where there's trash with no recycling she primarily focuses on the commercial more than the residential well the commercial is there's a lot of scuffle out there because it's difficult in mixed use mixed residential business to do things and there's a lot of tonics that they should be paying for because we give them we give those people full access to the recycling program the people who are in the page of the business program where they pay for a bag and I know there's a dentist on Park Avenue every Friday he's got his bags out there but I go along Mass Ave and there's some funky delivery stuff going over at malls regularly where there's a bunch of bags and there's no recycling or there's a bin that looks mostly empty so you know people are creative they'll work the system they'll use the system there's only one person there really the ERM guys to enforce we don't have a trash policeman and I don't think the board of select would really want one based upon past conversations this is supposed to be a nice place to live people are generally compliant people are very interested in recycling and there's some people who just don't care and that's that we'll get to them all eventually but I think more so I think more people recycle now than ever before I recycle more than when I first came here I know I do and I'm on the committee are there any other questions for the committee you said it before that you work with the recycling coordinator all the time we only visit this once a year and I think it was important for us to know what you do what they do and how they connect she's a member of the committee by law so she's at every one of our meetings and the first thing we do at every meeting if you look at our minutes is we get the coordinator's report which tells us how we're doing are we satisfied or are we creeping up and then where what the DPW is telling her what we can tell through her is the DPW any other questions thank you both for coming I've been at this a while just like you just be patient I know okay why don't we go to article 29 and okay so just once when we go down through it again historic district commission is 2160 historic district commission is 5100 capital zero commission on disability 3,000 recycling committee 3,000 human rights 4,500 tourism 1775 vision 2020 was three and transportation advisory committee was zero so everybody was the same as they were last year except for the transportation advisory committee which is zero okay do I have a motion on that second second okay is there any any discussion what is the total then looks like 30 no no 20,000 535 okay is there any discussion okay all those in favor of those committees and their separate amounts please say yes okay okay okay now on next week we're going to have the water bodies in at 745 and the assessors in at 815 for the revaluation and the Harry Barber funding article 35 that will be at 830 and then we'll get going on the budgets so next week we're going to go into budgets now but hopefully on Wednesday we don't have anything except budgets so if you could get those in and ready to present now one thing is going to be a little bit complex there's no pay raises in these budgets so and to my knowledge no contracts have been settled yet I'll talk to the manager about that so all of the this hasn't sort of formally been blessed by the budget and revenue task force yet which is meeting on the 23rd at 6 o'clock you're all welcome to attend everybody on board but the manager's proposed what he proposed to you a couple of weeks ago that he's taking all of his budgets down to a three and a quarter percent increase allowing the schools to stay at three and a half and then the next year his goes down to three percent the school goes down to three and a quarter and then the year after that it's three and three so trying to curtail this down now we might have to go steeper down after that we'll talk about what happens with local aid and things like this so all those people on non-manager appointing authorities the assessors, the treasurer, the selectman all those people you sort of might you know want to take a look at that when the contracts come in you know plug them in and make sure everybody's below the three and a quarter percent because we've got to bring down the rate of growth as much as possible if it's below three and a quarter that's fine I have a feeling that anything we get below three and a quarter we might want to shift into the next year's snow and ice budget it was amazing they showed on the news today before it came they compared Boston to Nashville and both cities have about 650,000 people Boston has 500 trucks to clear snow Nashville has 14 and they're getting walloped they're just not used to this on that so that'll be something we have to deal with hopefully we can fund a lot of that snow and ice deficit with the reserve fund I think it's a good thing that we we brought that up to a million because that'll have to go in there okay let's switch to budgets Peter you and David have any budgets we do okay okay everybody go to the selectman 25 David can't do this you've got to hand out at the beginning of the meeting on the election budget which is different from what was in the budget book the big difference is officers those are the people at the polls Marika Pellke recruits those people and she she wants to make sure that they are not they're paid a reasonable amount of money which we figured out based on the minimum wage there are two elections in this FY16 so that of course makes the out of effect it's hard to compare column to column I guess the other thing I'd like to mention is that accounting and auditing which is on page 28 is a request for $57,000 with the extra $2,000 were told covers of auditing of the SPED program but the SPED people didn't the school department did not budget it so it'll come out of this in the past Ruth Lewis says they have been able to grade bill the school department for part of the accounting and auditing budget I don't think my way of thinking oh that's not important but it's interesting so when you add the office charges on the first page the elections $87,760 the audit of $57,000 and printing the town report and some other printing of $3,500 the total is $382,632 okay could we go through these like one at a time on the bill through the elections what are the changes here the big the big change is the election office I think there's some other smaller ones the change from the budget book is that what you mean right so you've got some minor changes and expenses is the decrease of the salaries and wages because we're going to elections yes but you don't want to be what are you concerned with now the change from the budget book to the did you get the handout yes right here the budget book has salaries and wages of $34,200 and your substitute has $28,220 $28,220 where's the budget oh the bottom line the bottom line that's oh yeah yeah okay I'm sorry yeah so is that the increase because of the two elections are you going down for more elections let's see why is that different the the substitute here which came from which is really propelka's numbers I guess it probably is two elections there are all sorts of ins and outs of this right with the comparable election so when we do the 16 budget the comparable year is 14 so if we compare 14 to 16 we get to where we need to be it's not what we usually do if we go back two years that's approximately $5,000 more it doesn't make any sense if it's not well it looks like code 515219 end up just washing because what it looks like is happening here because they're almost as flip on the exact numbers we did down to the bottom line you have 82,344 these are the 14 actual 87,760 for 2016 budget which I'm assuming as Peter is saying is when you look at the change in the Massachusetts minimum wage that's going up annually over three years is what I think they're trying to communicate is the increase could we ask there are the elections officers as part of the expenses and then there's salaries and wages who's included in the salaries and wages? the janitors excuse me custodians DPW for moving the printing the voting boats from storage and selling them up and so forth the police at the big chunk an electrician and there's a town meeting chunk in there too the custodials services are town meeting that's based on eight eight nights and then the election salaries salaries and wages would be that's what I just went through you mean what's the total? no you've got 5100 that's what it's went through that's okay what's the day workers on election day it's the others okay the poll workers so 5219 they're for whatever reason they aren't listed as as salaried people they're not really town employees they're piece of workers I guess or something like that okay so which one are the poll workers? 5219? yes okay so that's the poll workers okay and then the custodians DPW police is 5100? that's correct okay what is the same format in our report anyway so they thought it would be more clear to one election officer to do salaries and with the other salaried people we can do that in our report if you think that would be more clear or if we can combine 5100 with 219 it's not like 5219 they're independent contractors right they're all around the place okay that's right and we can W-2's okay those people basically the others the poll workers are lumped into expenses in our report okay they're town employees they might be special town employees or something but do they get W-2's? no this is this is great really they do not receive 1099s at the end of the year unless they were over a certain amount of money right so they're contractors it's a bunch of food 1099s okay okay so the custodians et cetera regular town employees that get W-2's and the poll workers you think the 1099s? no they would have made over $650 for the given year 1099 contractors but they don't need the threshold and in that group they have that includes the warden the cleric the tellers and the substitute tellers that fill in for lunchtime okay are there any other questions on elections? are there any questions on the 13 town reports and the planning they've been doing the special education auditing program at least in recent years apparently they have but the balance would have normally come from the school budget in some years it has I didn't ask Ruth for year by year okay now how does this effect or was it already taken into account on page 25? or there's no total there's no total in this budget so that's why I read out the sum which is 3, 8, 2 6, 3, 2 we can vote on the totals of the bottom lines okay are there any questions on page 25? okay I'll take a motion on all of the selectman budgets then second? second any further discussion any further questions? okay move favorable action all those in favor please say aye aye I'll have to restain I have to restain on this okay I don't show the votes when we do the budgets anyway that's 2, 18 okay selectman's done Peter do you want to handle the manager? yeah okay as presented now there could be there could be a change in this total figure at some point we have to wait for the time it has to do with the manager's salary okay well let's do the budget and then we can go back and adjust it later okay total for 2016 is $500, $2,524 for that cap it's 2.27 okay are there any questions? could we get more of a general question could we get can we throw out the slides? can we get a summarized breakdown of how the offsets worked I'm sort of scaring at the four year trend of odds here mildly scratching my head at how they got to the numbers so rather than have to struggle with it day after day if they can provide us with one centralized location or analysis of how they got to it which I'm sure they have it would be helpful Grant do you have that as a page? John did this mysterious algorithm that I have a few of the changes every year where we can map it out you know we can trace it through the budget okay I think it's worth asking the deputy manager for that analysis we can ask for that we can just use this as the example it looks like maybe I'm wrong but it looks like if you go from 15 to 16 the offset on the incremental increase so if you just sort of eyeball it and you say longevity went up 1600 other benefits went up 7000 so let's say 8500 and everything else was flat it looks like the incremental offset was over 50% because it went from 109 to 110 to 115 so how do we get a 50% incremental that just seems when the beginning was when the beginning isn't 50% the beginning was like 20% I agree I'm not sure everything required about last year if you look into it it seems to be it may not be necessarily a relationship with the percentages I think it's sort of the algorithms kind of developed perhaps after the fact the flood gaps I have a feeling in well why isn't it misgrouping well I think they can answer it it seems like a fairly simple one why do we have 50% incremental could you either sit down with Andrew in all the detail and get an explanation and if you feel comfortable with it you can come back to us that's fine if you want Andrew to come back then we'll go that way you know and just go through the whole the whole thing so it looks like about a 4.5% increase in the offsets on this budget and it's about just before we go to print I always take a hand calculator and add up all the offsets because I'm always asking about that but I think you're asking more serious how does it actually determine and I think it was by a formula that was decided by Powers and Sullivan you know like 10 years ago and I think they just updated from them but why don't you why don't you check with Andrew and get that down more front of those things from 3 years ago we probably asked the same question but it was 3 years ago we've got to refresh our memory but the question is how and then you know what's it based on which I think is the Powers and Sullivan and then how is it adjusted each year the adjustment part if I look at the indirect charges the water and sewer you know it's up about 8, 9, no actually it says right here 7.93% now that could be because of health insurance and pensions that in other words that could be the lion's share because that's going up 7.93% this is only going up 4.8% but why don't we let Grant check that out and get that to us excuse me Paul do these offsets include other things other than water and sewer like their brick department or AYCC or other offsets I think that all the enterprise funds with the exception of AYCC pay a share of the health insurance through the enterprise funds but this should probably be just water and sewer I think I'll pay to get to pieces everything probably it's probably water and sewer I guess the whole offsets about almost $600,000 but like I said the only thing I guess I would ask for is we don't have to do this every year I think it's a copy of the report obviously they have it and they use it but I think we couldn't stop them from having or us from having to ask for a year thank you yeah I agree yeah we could refresh our memories okay are there any other questions on the town manager's budget okay do I have a motion second second okay any other questions now so we could come back to this for the town manager's salary and then grant will work on the the whole offset question of course that will affect everybody all those in favor of the manager's budget as presented please say aye aye opposed okay that's 502.524 right okay Peter okay our next one is legal do you want to handle that one yeah I'll do that I know you have copious notes on it too the 2016 request is $253,689 that's $61 and $62 my understanding is that they have no major litigation pending at this time and if you notice under the in the salary stipend for the benefits for the composition is also stipend under that that also could be subject to change that we'll have to check with the town manager on that figure but that says it is as presented now and that's for additional work done by that position holder for identification self insurance okay so so that's not part of his salary that's a reserve that's a stipend but that might not be the true figure that's still being worked out with the town manager's office I'm sorry what was it for it's for special litigation for denification for the town on certain things it was kind of over my pay grade but it's um he had been doing it before and he had received it slightly before and then when he was acting as acting town council they had to drop that that figure there seemed to be a conflict of interest and now they've picked back up but it's the true figure hasn't been negotiated yet so they used that as an adjustment figure for now he's in charge of the town's self insurance program which covers lots of things that are not health insurance obviously and sort of the backup second attorney yeah and they they actually they save quite a sum of money so that's it what's included in the expense line I'm sorry what's included in the expense line I couldn't under what's included in the expense line what's included legal expense right I think most of that is outside of legal it is I can tell you more there are three or five firms that they've dealt with in the past they're the budgets based on or the current year is they're using three there's one handles labor issues one handles environmental issues one handles construction and there was they had a case in Connecticut they had to get help for for that what cases I knew all about last year but I've forgotten what it's been it's been resolved they're not using that person anymore I'm just intrigued why we'd be spending any money on a Connecticut lawyer I think it was an I'm guessing I think it was an out of state situation that's why they want that one okay other questions if you Christina if you'd like this spreadsheet on that I'd be happy to make it a copy okay if you could thank you for everybody Peter thank you any other questions on the legal budget so you're recommending as as written 453-689 do I have a motion a little second okay any further discussion or questions okay all those in favor 453-689 we say aye opposed okay unanimous 218 and Peter you'll get back to this with that little spreadsheet okay thank you okay next the clerks budget that's on page 65 and if you go to page 66 under the salaries there's for some reason under the longevity for the town clerk in 2016 it was that's an incorrect figure the figure should be 4370 4373 4373 okay I'm sorry you're talking about the town clerk town clerk on 2016 that longevity figure is incorrect okay should be it should be 4373 4373 instead of 3498 correct okay and that I assume you're on in fact the longevity figure on page 65 that goes from 611 one two 6986 6986 and then your total budget then goes from that goes to 263-328 263 what 263-328 263-328 right that's the only change okay questions okay do I have a motion oh second okay moved to second for 263-328 any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye those okay favorable action 218 18 Board of Registration Board of Registration if you go to page 70 tech support the last one in the column over to 2016 you notice that there's no figure there it was not included and it should have been okay so there should be an extra 150 150 so it's 44 835 835 okay 44, 835 64 65 so the total would be 65, 85 okay are there any questions total again on that $60,585 okay do I have a motion so second okay any further discussion yeah might and I I'm trying to do it as quickly as I can here but so the clerk and the registrar roll up as one appointing authority correct yes so we have flat salaries on one plus pending a salary increase we have 6.28 on the other I don't know if that's pending a salary increase these are just steps or not one is much larger than the other I guess if you'll wait the average yeah okay fine I was just trying to figure out if they if you layer it on an increase today we're going to go over three in a quarter but I don't think they will I'll be under okay well okay you mean both could combine both before yeah what I'm trying to do though I what you said earlier I'm trying to take everyone's and then assume they get a 2.5% increase at that point in this one okay great thank you okay any further discussion okay all those in favor of $60,585 we say aye opposed okay Peter next one is planning on page 76 we recommend the budget as if you look at the the salaries page which is 78 there's the technical planner slash GIS analyst and that position is paid by three different budgets in addition to planning there's 18,000 something in IT and another 18,000 in water and sewer I guess it would be a good idea to make sure that that's the way it actually is that's what planning thinks it is and the assistant director has gone off considerably like $1,000 and that looks like it's set because of both the grade, the stuff and the longevity increase all in one year she's recently been qualified as a same kind of planner that Kaloski is is that a reclass I think she had a reclass did she have a reclass I don't know about that hold on let me look at it I don't have it from last year I do remember talking about it senior planner and housing director that's it in the bank classification last year we took the I assume this is the right person I think so yeah we took the I assume this is the right person I think so looks like it's senior planner, housing director we took from 1810 to 12 yeah that's 12 $11,000 $11,224 in last year's meeting so okay and that's going to the assistant director of community okay that's it so that was in the class of black last year so between that and the steps it counts for the increase in salaries and wages okay are there any are you recommending us printed? yes I have a question last year we increased the hours for the conservation administrator and at that time I recall that the idea would be the conservation commission would increase their fees to help offset that increase but it doesn't look like that's happening do you know anything about that Peter? I asked if they in past years the $3,000 this year I forgot what you just said they said no no problem we can do that okay could you find out if they can do a little more or any they can do the three tasks I know they can do the three but could you contact a bond has the conservation commission increase their fees to help support this I think we could go ahead with the budget but if you could come back with that next time we'll do okay any additional questions do I have a motion? second motion to debate second for $415,730 any further discussion all those in favor we say aye aye aye, unanimous okay on the redevelopment board the redevelopment board proper is level one I wonder why the budget is so much bigger than the actual so the answer is that Carol gave us a thing or it's the cost of implementing the master plan in her department in this redevelopment board so will that amount tend to go down at some point in the future? I hope so okay now this has been separated out at our request by the manager you'll see the next one is general fund rental properties we've got all the rental properties unfortunately they didn't go quite as far as I had hoped and include you know Mt. Pilbola 1st Street and all those properties too which I've asked them to not ready to sort of terrify the public works budget this year but hopefully I've asked them to do it for next year and get that information down in addition to that there's a it also doesn't include debt payment so in the case of the Gibbs department that's the other one okay well let's finish up the redevelopment board right now okay so redevelopment board is $10,000 the same as we budgeted last year are there any questions? do I have a motion? a little second okay any further discussion? okay all those in favor of 1800 we say aye opposed unanimous 218 okay rental yes page 85 right? yep so okay the debt payment for these properties was $88,729 so the balance the positive balance which is the negative number here is $238,863 but I believe we are you going to change the way you handle it in the report? the way we have been handling it is only the expenses go in the report and the revenues are hidden in the local receipts hidden is a very strong word watch my mouth okay I don't know we'll think about this I think put it in as the all the expense items and when I was thinking at this point is a footnote on the revenues revenues are projected to be for next fiscal year 581,220 these amount these how is that the effect? I can add it in the column so we can see what that is but I just wanted to use a footnote this year because it's really not an enterprise fund I don't want people to think it's an enterprise fund but I think we could say projected revenues for this budget next year are the 581,520 the expenses above do not include capital on depreciation question that out a little bit we don't don't include it in the appropriation but we can have the revenues and the debt service underneath the bottom line just so the arithmetic is done and they can see exactly what the real profits are then you have to pull it out where it is right now we wouldn't include it in the appropriation just put it there sort of as a note so it wouldn't be in the appropriation but it would just be capital plan but if you could find out what the debt service is and other capital we can look and see but it would be good to have a not appropriated number which is transparent exactly because everybody always asks are these buildings making us money or losing money so let's let's fit it in as much as we know I mean it was enterprise fund we'd have depreciation or something and we can't change it into I'd like to I'm sure I wanted to say it was enterprise fund or not but it would be you'd be taking a lot of revenue out of the general fund for one thing probably not a good idea but we couldn't do it under the statutes now we have to have a special legislation but you know the thing that this never shows is all the capital that's why Brian was so anxious to get rid of the Crosby school because he just saw that coming down the road there was going to be some big capital for that building there probably will be for these other buildings too so again not a lot of appropriation but it does the point of information whatever makes it realistic this is a regular budget but it's a separate section something like that we'll see we'll come up with it okay so what we're appropriating now is the by the way I assume it's you're recommending as presented okay so what we're appropriating now is 253-928 as presented above now I suppose it would be interesting because Peter do they have this you know somebody is going to ask me you know here's the Gibbs expenses how much are we getting in Gibbs revenue so could you ask the manager's office could they break it down by Gibbs expenses okay okay don't need to go to the next page okay so there's Gibbs revenue and just between maintenance almost 200,000 of course you don't have part of the salaries too the next page after that is salary right that's for all the buildings not for just that's true Alan why don't you in the footnote break down the revenue for each each building okay I'm saying that doesn't include all the it does it those just don't public works so I that's one of the reasons I want to see it so we have we see everything in one place but those just don't public works the revenue the revenue isn't the revenue probably just goes into the rental budget or the estimated receipts the expenses are not the revenue yeah see the debt service the debt payment $88,000 would you get that number what how is it related to these expenses specifically well I have a spreadsheet here that that the Atlantic can provide it that shows each line is very different something different that was borrowed for so particular projects Peter it's their portion of the capital budget that got bonded in prior years right so that's an attempt at earmarking not earmarking but just breaking out of the capital budget okay Steven where do you see that service here well no Peter they've just mentioned into us our staff is invisible especially has a bunch of things for gifts and a bunch of things for parmeters yeah that wasn't on here I was just curious he just mentioned $88,729 and I didn't know how they broke that out thank you are there other questions okay do I have a motion for the 253-928 oh second okay any further discussion okay all those in favor if we say aye opposed unanimous 16 18 Peter one more before we go there did you ask us to get something for property I started to write it down but I missed what you found oh right it was on the next page yeah we'll go to the footnote revenues for each of the three major properties and then you know so they get the information but it's not like they think they're voting on an enterprise fund and you might even say we're going to the general fund and then any other expenses not included above include debt service and anything else or future capital okay ZBA recommend that it has printed $22,001 any questions do I have a motion second any further discussion what's the moment $22,001 okay did I ask for a moment all in favor if we say aye opposed 18 okay is that it Peter okay very good thank you both are there any other budgets yeah that happened okay hold on 147 okay so everybody got them all great 149 the budget I just wanted to say something about the salaries on the next page just so you know that Brennan the office manager is really full time but part of the budget is paid from other funds now is this full salary that's my salary is below the minimum yes now I don't know if there are other budgets necessarily but from other funds well sometimes especially in the health we foot noted right when we were doing social workers and stuff but it's not that do you know where the money is coming from yeah I don't so I'll have to ask okay good let's see we have footnotes under the health compliance officer I think there's a couple others social worker nurse represents town portion only these positions are partially funded by usually with grants those were from grants but this I don't know if that's true so if you could check on that because then we might want to add that footnote there too do you want to wait to vote on that until I know well it doesn't affect the amount we're appropriating but if you could get back to us as soon as you can so for that particular budget I just want to vote what's printed on page 149 which is the 370 3474 see they buffed up the mosquito control yes and I did ask her about that and they are because of the weather we've been having there anticipating a much worse mosquito problem in the spring I started hoping they'd all freeze to death it might not be thought about if the snow doesn't melt until town day it might save some money you might save some money I don't think so Christine has a question are there any questions for the health and human services administration Christine line item 5277 applies medical and why why it's being budget greatly over the actual I didn't ask that question do you remember what you said about that yeah because it was the same as last year so I didn't really think much about why it was so different earlier okay I don't know the answer to that either and then I have a question about overtime and what's overtime used for usually because people have to be on call for various emergencies and when they have to do extra things like well wasn't the police shots but remember when the yes there was all the TV and whatever else scares and then people had to be inoculated that was all over time I imagine that's sort of the same explanation for the supplies medical you know if they've got to give twice as many food shots or something that'd be a guess but if you could check on that yes I'll ask that too are there other questions okay we've got three questions on this could you take those get those answered are there any other questions for the budget okay so okay as long as we're getting ganging up on this budget I was looking at the inspector of civil rights he must be selling some someplace else point one position that's shared with Belmont it's not a what did you say Belmont gives him at least this is from last year 2000 plus COLA so it's a real part-time position yes it is okay are there any questions other questions okay so why don't we just put a hold on this come back next time alright so you want me to ask about overtime, medical supplies and the funds for Brennan yeah where the balance comes from oh do we have any additional questions about the human rights issue that Steve Harrington brought you mean answers yeah no Christine knows the one and Christine does meet with that person monthly and you know is fully aware of what's going on and the point that she made too is the human rights commission is designed for the actual victim so Steve is bringing up an issue but he is not the actual victim so that in itself is an issue we have any additional questions that you could is Christine technically the yes Christine acts as the executive director they did go back and I think Christine mentioned too that there's usually only one or so complaints per year so they're Christine Bongiorno acts as the executive director and meets with the commission once a month she goes to the meetings not everyone but she goes to the meetings but she meets with the administrator regularly okay I think one of the points that Steve Harrington made was that he made a statement that she's not qualified to be the executive director according to the article that was passed but as best we can tell talking to Christine those duties have been subsumed by the committee itself so you know executive director doesn't need qualification per se she's just serving as the director have the select you could ask this if you don't know have the select one taking a vote to appoint her as the human rights commissioner executive director I would guess not but you could ask if that's happened because if it hasn't they should just go ahead and do it and then it's not really our decision to decide whether she's qualified or not it's the board's selectments decision but I'd like to say arguing about this for 20 minutes in front of town meeting if the selectments could take the vote she's also going to be here Patty Brennan will be here for the Harry Barber thing next week tell her we'll ask that if she could check on that I will alright so we're skipping that one and moving on to veterans which is the next page okay so obviously the big difference is that in the veterans aid and assistance and in fact for 2015 that that amount is going to have to increase and they are going to come and request that but I just want to say that the state also made changes so that we the town pays the housing assistance but they get reimbursed 100% but the other veterans aid that's provided is only reimbursed at 75% but so when you look at this number it's not a total outlay we get money back from the state it's just not 100% of what we get back but there have been significant increases in the amount of services and aid and assistance whatever that have to be provided to the families the spouses of the veterans because there are more of them okay so are you recommending as printed I am which is the 420,151 does she have is there any idea right now how much money they're going to need 140,000 they'll need from the reserve fund yeah so remember 75% of that will come back Dean I'm sure it's not too much because you said they're at 100% in the 75% just for the housing assistance is 100% everything else is 75 and that's new this year so what account is the housing assistance what percentage of this assistance is housing I don't know you want me to ask about too well really what I'd like to know I'm assuming most of the reimbursement goes into this account 5710 so the question I guess I'd like to understand what's the actual cost right this is one of these budgets what is the actual cost of what what's net of reimbursement like if you tell us okay you need 140,000 but it shows up under the housing so it's really zero you want to talk about zero not really I'd just like to understand now it gets 100% reimburse is that what you're that's my point if the $120,000 fall into the 100% bucket you kind of say big numbers that aren't really big numbers yeah so of the $360,000 how much is housing how much is housing and how much is all of it right so what's the net cost of that I think that money is on the cherry sheet yeah that money comes back on the cherry sheet and goes into the general fund we had it we had it last year about 225,800 for this fiscal year so my guess is most of it is all else as opposed to housing but that's just a guess you can find out are there any other questions on this budget Ken the increase that we see in the benefits assistance is this due because of recently we turned young veterans as a combination of the young veterans and how old are veterans it's a combination of everything yes but significantly sorry a significant part of it maybe most of it is the younger veterans well and it's mostly their families because the veterans have not returned so there's the assistance for the veterans and there's assistance for the family of the vets on act duty okay that's a thing again in the spirit of transparency that under the appropriation bottom line we might want to pull in an estimate of what would come in from the cherry sheet next year or something just to show that 75, 80 percent is a big number right I think that's a good idea we put it in the master sheet but nobody's going to tie the two together right and it's it's only this year that that we started that the state started with separating out housing and reimbursing at 100 oh so before it was just 75 across the board yes I think we'll have to guess but if we guess 75 that's concerning right it's one of the budgets that's probably sank or sank in the state legislature so okay are there any other questions Mary Margaret yes what's the separation housing everything else is 75 percent all other aid is reimbursed at 75 percent housing is 100 100 percent housing of 100 yes and everything else is 75 is reimbursed at 75 percent yes that's a good idea to put note that I bring that amount there I think it's going to be important as well we'd also be nice to perhaps in the future it could be two separate line items here in the budget for housing and one for the other so we can see it right here and they might not know until after us right and of course we just we just put it down as expenses I think in this budget I don't know the legislature would require if a bottom aid was needed is a requirement to dip into the reserve fund to increase it you know is there a requirement I don't know the answer to that I guess is yes I mean you have to he has the veterans officer has to provide that that is a requirement how we do it I guess is probably a judge would say a lack of appropriation is not an excuse so you might even want to add in some kind of footnote too because that's a big chunk of money I agree with what you're saying though because we all sort of take notes here what we're talking about is a real estate what we're talking about is an $18,000 budget increase not a $72,000 budget increase when you're asking for it's $35,000 reserve fund transfer not $140,000 you're right with the offset these numbers are bigger than they really are yeah you're right we have to last year don't you remember they came in for a substantial transfer of the reserve fund at the end of the year at the end of the year it makes you wonder should they increase the budget may that make me a question but but it's making me $40,000 last year for the veterans okay so are you recommending the as printed yes I am the $420,151 and then I will ask her to break down the percentage of the aid into the 100% reimbursement and the 75% reimbursement sounds good okay do I have a motion second okay we've been seconded for $420,151 and then Martin Mary Margaret will get back to us with the the split on the housing and all other $420,151 all those in favor are there any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye 218 okay council on aging I'm sorry council on aging before we go now we've got three more minutes okay don't want very rolling around alright so page 157 is the council on aging and line item 5 2 9 9 I'm sure is what will get your attention how did it go from 240 to 9000 because they just hired a receptionist it's a contract job they used to have volunteers working the desk and it didn't work because there wasn't always the communication and the volunteers didn't always know where to send the people within council on aging to get the various services they needed so this it has been the person is hired part-time as a part-time contractor and they want to make that person more full-time but still a contractor not an employee listen to how private industry gets out of pain for a while there was a rule about that yeah well stories for another day so otherwise the budget is the same and I didn't see anything unusual about salaries to comment on but in case you do it's mostly just longevity or step raises that made the increase and I think there's still a couple people who get paid from grants which is I believe the social worker and the nurse I don't know what the split is yeah now there are two there's a full-time social now it's like two part-time social workers that are paid by grants and a nurse who's paid partially by grants also okay so the big increase is the contract worker the receptionist okay any other questions I have a question do you know why those grants are not shown as offsets well we used to have as part of the budget there used to be a little chart down at the bottom that said it came from this grant and that grant I can't answer that question why we show them footnoted in the finance committee report that these are part-time partially paid by state grants and then we used to have it actually print out on the budget but I don't know why it wasn't done that way okay there are other questions I will ask for that too yeah you could ask what are the other how much money do they get from the state grants are there any other questions council on aging are you recommending the budget is printed I am do I have a motion? second are there any other discussion or questions okay all those in favor of 213-341 we say aye aye okay now on one day you know we have three articles but we need to get some more budgets in well we'll have more I'm sorry good I know you will we're ready to cut okay is there any other business before the committee compliance with the merry-go-round rule