 Calling to order the meeting of the Ellington Select Board from Monday, April 26, 2021. As a preliminary matter, this is Select Board Chair Steven DeCorsi. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Van Mahan. Affirmative, thank you. John Hurd. Yes. Len Diggins. Yes. Eric Helman. Yes. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam Chapter Lane. Yes. Doug Heim. Affirmative. And Board Administrator Ashley Myers participating remotely. Tonight's meeting of the Ellington Select Board is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020, which encourages and allows open meetings of state agencies and local governments to be conducted remotely in order to mitigate transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Given how long we've been in remote status, members and observers may note that I'm using an abbreviated version of the Board's introduction to remote meetings. The Governor's order, which you can find posted with agenda materials on the town's website for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Before we begin, permit me to offer a few notes. First, this meeting is being conducted via Zoom and is being recorded and is also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI. Persons wishing to join the meeting by Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. Persons participating by Zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate, you are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting. Further, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves and both Zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials also found on the town's website using the Novus Agenda Platform. Finally, each vote will be taken by roll call. I'll now turn to the first agenda item which is the fiscal 2021 quarterly budget update with Mr. Poole and Ms. Cody. Is Mr. Poole with us? Yep, I'm just promoting both of them. Okay, good evening, Mr. Poole. Good evening, Ms. Cody. Sandy, you're still on mute. What do you mean? Good evening, everybody. Sorry, it's, you know, when you're waiting to get in line and you are brought into the meeting, it takes you out of Zoom for a minute and brings you back in. So it's a little disconcerting. Nice to see you tonight. Nice to see you too. And thank you all for your attention. Eden, I are here to present the third quarter financial report and to answer any questions that members of the board may have. I have tried to keep it a simple report, partly because there is not a lot of new news. Thank you, Adam. And partly because I know we have limited time before town meeting starts tonight. So what I will say is, as a general manner, we are on target in the general fund on our spending. There are only two departments that have run well ahead of their budgets for being three quarters of the way through the year. That is the redevelopment board. They've had some heavy advertising, having to do with the number of items, zoning articles that were before town meeting, and they have to advertise for those. I've talked to Jenny Wright about this. She will try to cover most of this overage through a transfer from the planning department budget by the end of the year. Otherwise, we will have to go for a reserve fund transfer. Similarly, in health and human services, they've spent 99% of their budget. There are still some COVID costs that we think that are eligible to be paid for by the federal government. And we anticipate getting that done before the end of the year. So I think that will go away. Has been a matter of just sorting out those costs and filing them. Although the information technology department is not over the 10% threshold that we usually mention at these meetings, we think the spending is large enough because of payouts that had to be made to the retiring department head that is likely that we will have to do some sort of transfer or reserve fund transfer by the end of year. But, and we are monitoring that and we'll come forward to the finance committee in the slide board in June, should that be necessary? If you could go to the next page, please. Our other section is non-direct, non-departmental expenses, debt, minimum and pensions, liability insurance. Debt is ahead of 75% but that's because most of our debt gets paid either in December or February. So we are fine with that. Minuteman, the meanest printout in your attachment shows that we've expanded 115% but that was because of a payment at the time of making this presentation where the encumbrance had not been yet cleared out. I've confirmed that with the comptroller and we are on target and really not overspendent spent there, pensions are 100% spent because we spent that at the beginning of the year and life insurance again has, the liability excuse me has been over expended but that's because there are some expenditures that will really come out of the legal department fund. And so again, I don't think we have any problems there. Moving down to revenue, our biggest source is tax collection that is right on target. We do have a couple of areas that are well over our estimates but mostly that's because our estimates are below what they have been in previous years. We lowered motor vehicle excise considerably this year in order to make sure that we collected everything that we forecast. So our collection rate already this year is 102%. So we will meet our forecast but we overall are down about 8% in our collections from this time last year and down 3% the number of bills that we've sent out. Our fee collection rate is high. That is mostly because we're now collecting marijuana sales revenue at $87,000. That's the first time that we've seen that hit the general fund and so that's a nice little boost this year. Penalties and interest from collections on previous year's taxes have been healthy. The treasurer's been doing a good job there and other areas have done fine. I would say license and permits is always one that we have had a surplus on in past years. The surplus this year is not quite as big as it has been in past years so we will get some free cash out of it but probably not as much as in previous years. And you've seen the payment lieu of taxes show up in an earlier report because of a one-time catch-up payment from the housing authority. Adam, if you could keep going down on revenues a little bit more. Hotels and meals taxes are well above their forecasted levels because those are $60,000 and $50,000 respectively. Those are down in each of those cases about $400,000 from their original estimate. So even though they are above forecast, we will be short of those for the current year. I think those are the most significant revenue savings or revenue counts this year. I have been monitoring our revenue this year to compare it to our FY19 revenue which is the basis of comparison that the federal government wants us to have for the ARPA where we will be able to collect some of that lost revenue versus our 2019 base. So far this year through 75% of the way through the year we are short about $1.6 million from our FY19 collections. So I think that's some indication of at least the general fund revenue that we'll be able to recoup from the federal government. Moving down to the enterprise funds. The water fund has expended 79% of its budget slightly ahead of the 75% although they do pay some of their payments early in the year so that's normal. Our collection rate is 86%, 84% of that being from collection rate for our fees. That's because the slide board did raise fees in a timely manner last year and there was sort of a drought last summer so our collection rate is ahead of schedule. So I think the water and sewer fund is in good shape. AYCC has expended 88% of its budget. Some of its collection from fees is low. I know there are other sources that AYCC has been able to use in the past to supplement some of their revenue. We have been talking with them about that and that is how we anticipate closing that gap by the end of the year. The transportation fund is I think doing fine. Their activity and expenses are down and so even though their revenue is down I think they'll be okay. The RINC at this point by the end of the year has expended 87% of its budget which is pretty much all of its spending and Adam could just go down a little bit more. Their revenues are also pretty much done for the year and they have collected 56% of their revenue I've been talking to Joe Connelly. He updates this every couple of weeks. I anticipate by the end of the year when we know final numbers he will move some of the expenses in this fund over to the recreation fund because really his staff that are split between the RINC and recreation if it's spent most of their time working in recreation recreation will have enough funds to cover those things. And so both the RINC and the recreation fund I think will be in balance by the end of the year. So that I think is a quick summary given our time constraints. I would be happy to answer any questions that any member of the board has. Great, thank you very much Mr. Poole. I'll turn it over to the board for questions or comments. Mr. Heard. You Mr. Poole and Ms. Cody. First of all, I'll move receipt of the report. Just one question on the marijuana collection fees for the 87,000. Do you know what period that covers? Well, it started in the fall at small amounts and it's picked up over the winter. So it's for the first nine months of the year but we really only started getting large amounts over the last three months or so. Is that, is the 87 an aggregate total of all? Yes. So we've gotten just, and okay. All right, that's all I had on that. Thank you. Great, thank you Mr. Heard. Mr. Diggins. Well, second receipt and once again, thank you Ms. Cody and Mr. Poole. I really appreciate the written explanation of things, especially the comparison to pre-COVID. So for instance, when we see higher than expected input from some source, you didn't tell us that it is still below what was projected. Even though it's ahead of the current projection it's below what we used to get. So that's very helpful. Just three questions, speed. With respect to the Redevelopment Board, you say that they have spent more than expected due to needing to advertise but I see the zoning Board of Appeals is like 36% of their budget. This is a little naive question. You said that this rate was gonna look into seeing what you can do about transferring funds. I mean, would it not be an option to get some of that funds from the ZBA that seemingly has a lot of money? It could be. It's just a matter of what balances different departments have at the end of the year. Right. We'll do a transfer that will leave all departments with balanced budgets. And it was just suggested to me and in discussion with Jenny Wright that her budget might be able to cover the Redevelopment Board shortage. So that's why we looked at that. Gotcha. And with respect to the AHA and paying five years did we ever find out why it was like a five year? I had reached out but had not ever gotten an answer. Okay, still just curious to me. It's not a big deal of hate. And finally, on the interest income is higher. Not that I'm gonna go out and publicize this on Reddit and start selling synthetic or buying synthetic put options on the futures but is that a harbinger of things to come? Because like being an increase in what we're getting on our savings may be indication of highest interest rates on borrowing. Is that your sense? I think it is really indicative of the fact that we have traditionally had a low estimate for earnings on investments because they have been so volatile. And so it is one of those areas that we have generally low balled. And that, and I think because the Treasurer has done a very good job even in a low interest environment of collecting revenue. We see that coming up with that big number. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. Mrs. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I try to cross off a lot of my questions because I know we're limited for time. So I'll be following up with Ms. Cody and Mr. Puerh. But the five I've never heard it down to which do not need detailed explanations. Regarding COVID related costs that we anticipate to be reimbursed by the CARES Act funding as well as revenues lost that we may be able to recover through the Recovery Act and possibly apply to our override stabilization fund my question or request is on those reportings in the future because I know that Mr. Puerh or Ms. Cody said that once the costs show up and they can move it to the CARES Act or the Recovery Act. And I'm really focused on what we can project for loss revenues through now in 2024 to apply to override stabilization fund I'm anticipating that the reporting may be to each department but if we could have in the report for the CARES Act and the Recovery Act reporting on a total number what came from what we were able to recover from the CARES Act as well as what we were able to recover or apply through the Recovery Act especially on override stabilization fund. So I don't know if Ms. Cody with Munis or Mr. Puerh could kind of give me a real brief what's gonna be that I mean, I want the details from each department but I kind of like to see a separate CARES Act Recovery Act vis-a-vis override stabilization loss revenues. We would be very happy to provide that information. We at this point are still waiting for clarification from the government to federal government, the Treasury on what we can count as that loss revenue. I mentioned just the general fund. There are other areas that we're waiting to see whether we can count such as parking revenue or building rental or so forth that we just haven't seen the regulations yet. And once we do have those regulations out we will account for those monies and we'd be very glad to report those to you. And could I also ask maybe Ms. Cody to comment on that because it's everything that Mr. Puerh cited it's about all agent recreation revenue loss. It's other things like maybe sort of what Ms. Cody is thinking about how that might get reported through Munis. I think I can prepare a special report for you that consists only of COVID salaries and COVID expenses as well as the revenues that we receive. It's still early at this time we did receive two trenches of money. We're still waiting for more money. We're still applying for reimbursements. So once we get a better picture we can provide a detailed and extensive report for you and we can address all the issues that you're interested in. And could I maybe not make a question but a request through Mr. Puerh or Ms. Cody along with the chair, Mr. DeCorsi that for that initial when we know the number through the recovery act in the CARES Act if it doesn't fall in line with the next quarterly budget update that we kind of get that out of line and then it falls into line with the quarterly budget report. I would definitely I know there's been conversations and my pie in the sky numbers maybe the town for loss revenue might be able to put three to five million into the old rights civilization but that may be me being too polyanna. Mr. Diggins touched on the housing authority. I don't know if either one of you can briefly say that in terms of the pilot program if we anticipate that the following year we'll also see collection rates similar or close to this or if this is a one time thing or if the answer is you haven't gotten back you haven't got the question answer back that you've asked so you can answer my question. I would say two things. I have not had anybody be able to answer the question for me. However, I do think we will continue to get some payments. I don't think they will be as big as they were this year because it's my understanding so second hand that these payments represented multiple years. So I think we will continue to get payments but not as big as the ones we've gotten so far. Okay and sort of a piggyback onto that. I do know when we've had CDBG meetings which is sort of a crossover that a lot of people who applied to programs who decided to move out of Allenton paid back in total whatever program they had applied to. So there was an increase in that but is that something that Mr. Poole or Ms. Cody does not report on and I need to rely on CDBG or is that somewhere in here and I didn't see it? That really is a different CDBG. We don't report here on our quarterly reports on all of the grants and so forth. We just do the general fund and the five enterprise funds. Okay, my last two questions I apologize. I actually had 12 so I got them down to five. This is sort of a notation comment under fines and forfeitures with the police department. I guess I would leave it to the town manager to along with whatever department heads whether it's the police chief or others to sort of highlight that to town meeting if and when appropriate that not so much of the money that we lost but the mindset or process that we're taking through the police department to be more proactive in education versus fines or violations which I think not only applies to parking, traffic enforcement but also with the recent incident that we had which I know the town manager is familiar with. So I don't know if he wants to come in and that he doesn't have to but I think I'd like to highlight because a lot of people are talking about the police department and how we look at how it operates and changing mindsets in terms of enforcement which I know we're doing not just with traffic violations but also with what some people may say low level substance abuse issues. I don't know Adam if you want to comment on that if you don't want to, that's okay. I think if it's okay Mr. Chair I think I can say generally we can think we can see if there's a way during town meeting based on questions that are asked to highlight just what you mentioned. I think that I don't, as you know I don't think there's a way we can necessarily proactively share it but if asked I think that is appropriate to share. Okay and then my last comment would be on the recreation fund and I don't know Ms. Cody or Mr. Fuller could speak to this briefly. I do know when Mr. Hart and I were in CDBG I think we, the CDBG subcommittee and then approved by the select board vastly increased funding to the Allenton recreation department for capital improvements and recreation programs in lieu of them really kind of starting back up and be able to under COVID-19 offer safe programs. So I don't know if they can speak to this in terms of what is projected for, I know it's coming in, what is the budget is expended at 38% in the collection rate of 57%. I was just wondering if you all, Ms. Cody or Mr. Fuller have received or maybe will receive in the future the monies we allotted through CDBG to help a lot of these programs really flourish if there's any projected monies that the rec department anticipates or hopes that they'll receive or is it, no, we have to wait and see what it actually is. It's not something we can project right now. I would just say briefly if I did Mr. Chair that Joe Conley has been doing regular updates for us showing projections through the end of the year that would show with some of these transfer expenses I was talking about both those funds coming in very, very near to even in each case. I have to admit I have not focused on the CDBG aspect of it. So I'd be happy to go look at that and provide you more explanation. Okay, and then my last query would be to the chair who also chairs the long range planning committee but also to Ms. Cody and Mr. Fuller. I know we have the town side, we have the school side and it's sort of, it is separate reporting practices but in terms of discussions at long range planning committee I don't know if there's somehow Mr. Fuller and Ms. Cody through munis, especially around special education could maybe separate from this report. Maybe it's not quarterly give the select board a reporting on that especially moving forward from long range planning committee. So I don't expect an answer on that. I just kind of wanted to put you on notice that we're having that discussion and the chair of the finance committee Mr. Foskett has been beginning some initial conversations that I know I've been raising a town meeting for 15 years. So what I'd like to do is I really appreciate the work in getting all this information, excuse me from the town side. And I'd like to maybe from your counterparts either on their own or in concert with you also get again, maybe not a quarterly maybe by annual or annual reporting if not to the select board to the long range planning committee. I don't know if Mr. Corsi as chair of both committees wants to say any comment beyond I hear your question will follow up. So yeah, well, I'll say a couple of things. Well, first any other questions Mrs. Mahan or No, that was it. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Now that's fine. And as to your comments, we have had discussions at long range planning committee there is going to be a smaller group that will be meeting informally at some point between now and the middle of May through long range playing. I think some of those questions will come up at those meetings. But I think it's at least as to those questions we should be reaching out through the school department and I think we'll do that through long range planning. So I just have a couple of questions and comments. And again, thank you, Mr. Poole and Ms. Cody for the presentation on the lost revenue that you referred to for the ARPA funds. You mentioned general fund losses. Will enterprise fund losses perhaps be recoverable as well or is it just limited to the general fund? Do we not know yet? We do not know yet. We're waiting eagerly to hear what the Treasury Department tells us about that. Okay. And then on the pilot payments it seems like everybody's got that on their mind tonight. Mr. Poole and I did speak about that earlier today and there may be a role here that the assessors played in this as well. So in addition to talking with the housing authority I think there'll be follow-up with Mr. Tierney as well because there's alternative procedures for the payment loop tax in chapter 121B. The last comment is just a question. Given that we're now receiving the marijuana revenues both between the community impact fee and the local excise. I'm wondering on your revenues for future quarters if that can be separately stated? Yeah, I put it in the narrative but I could break it out in the numbers tables. I knew it'd be a matter of interest and I'd be glad to highlight it going forward. Okay, I appreciate that. And then I did have one more question and that was just you mentioned some potential reserve fund requests and we're still maybe a little early for other departments but are there any others beyond what you listed in your memo that you might see coming down for reserve fund request transfers between now and the end of the fiscal year? I'm not aware of any large ones, Ida and I have been talking, well, we've been talking about sitting down to talk and go through a thorough review together of the department's needs, but at this point we have not gone line by line as we usually do at the end of the year. Generally though, I'm not aware that other departments are looking to be running deficits at this point. Do you wanna, would you agree with that? No, I'd yes, I do agree with that. The only possible candidate is the IT due to the retirement but other than that, everything seems to be in good shape and I'm still waiting for CARES funds. Once I receive all the funds from CARES, I will make some, I will post some reclassification and that should free up some funds in the general fund. We will know more in the next, let's say two to three weeks. Okay, great, great. Thank you both very much for the presentation. I know we're a little tight on time and we covered a lot of ground, so we really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, move on to the next items. These are all on the consent agenda. Item three is the minutes of meetings for March 29th, 2021, April 5th, 2021 and April 12th, 2021. Item four is a request for a contracted drain layer license, Paladino Excavating Corporation. Item five is the reappointment, excuse me, Board of Registrar of Voters, William Logan for a term to expire at 331-2024. And number six is for approval, the Allenton High School Class of 2021 banners. So just before I call on members, what I'd like to do on the minutes, the March 29th and the April 5th minutes were before Mr. Helmuth joined the select board. So when we vote for that, I'd like to have a separate vote on those two, you pull those out and treat the April 12th separately. So with that, Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a approval of the consent agenda. Thank you very much. Mr. Helmuth. I second. Can I do that? Given that there's two minutes that I have to abstain. Yeah, no, that's fine. Thank you. Ms. Mahan, any questions, comments? Can I just do a quick housekeeping item? And I know it's me just being anal. Oh, you're absolutely right. Go ahead. Are you gonna say it? I appreciate that. Yeah, so we did have a motion in a second. So let me step out of the consent agenda for a second. We had a motion and a second on the quarterly budget report, but we didn't have a vote to receive it. So with that, Attorney Heim. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. And thank you, Mrs. Mahan, in my rush to get through the meeting, I skipped over an important vote there. So I don't know if you had any other questions or comments on the consent agenda. Okay. Mr. Herd. No questions or comments. Okay. So we have a motion by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Helmuth, Attorney Heim. Mr. Herd. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Helmuth. Yes. Mrs. Mahan. Yes. Mr. DeCorsi. Yes. Mr. Nandlis vote. Great. Thank you very much. Okay, now we're back on schedule. Next item is new business. So we'll start, Attorney Heim. No new business. Thank you. Mr. Chaplin. One piece of new business to share. We today, a group of department heads and supervisors participated in a three hour training with the National League of Cities, Race, Equity and Leadership Division. We'll continue that with a further three hour training tomorrow. This is called Real 201, where we move from learning about the history of race in this country to actually operationalizing and analyzing how it begins to, how we can begin to look at how these issues impacts departmental operations. So we had a powerful, well attended session today and looking forward to another one tomorrow and I wanted to share that with the board. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chaplin. Mr. Helmuth. Yes, I'd like to congratulate the town manager and others in the town for achieving a notable achievement. Boston Magazine this past week did a really comprehensive and very thoughtful analysis of 32 metro area communities on how well they're doing for policy and practice on climate change policies. And Arlington was ranked number two out of 32. The only town that was ranked higher was Cambridge. And they mentioned specifically that nobody has done more with the Green Communities Program than Arlington. Noted that we've won nine grants from the program, received over $1.7 million to fund a wide range of energy conservation and green energy development projects. And I quote, it also won points for having a standout level of leadership and climate issues thanks to town manager Adam Chaplin. So well done. I appreciate your leadership on this and I know that the residents of the town did as well. Thank you. Thank you for getting my name right on that one. They've corrected it online. Yeah. Well, that was a nice piece of editing, Mr. Helmuth. Thank you very much. And congratulations, Mr. Chaplin to the town. That is fantastic. Mr. Diggins. Yes, thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Helmuth. And congrats to our town manager and the town. And there's some other good people in this town that work very hard on that issue, especially in sustainable Arlington. So no new comments or new business for me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Diggins. I'm Mr. Hurd. Ditto the congratulations and no new business. Great. Thank you. And I just have one brief item that the town manager and I spoke, if those of you have been on Lake Street to the bike path, the lights seem to be working very well but there has been some confusion with some motorists who are taking turns from time to time onto the bike path. And I know he's gonna, we spoke about him maybe looking into speaking with DPW to change the green, the full green to a straight arrow green that may relieve some of the confusion there. So thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane for looking into that. We have town meeting this evening and let's hope it runs smoothly. And with that, I'm gonna turn to Mrs. Mahan because we differ a motion to adjourn because it's a little bit different than our usual. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I get into that very briefly, Mr. Chapter Lane and I serve on the Clean Energy Futures Committee which also was very pleased in terms of the number two, rather be number one, but that's okay. We'll take two behind Cambridge that Mr. Helm with our colleague raised as well as just wanted to note that it's recently a week ago as well as today, I know that take those dates away. The zoning board of appeals made a ruling on the Mugar Oak Tree property. The select board is totally separate from that and has no say in that. That's for our colleagues on the zoning board of appeals to collect information, mitigate and make a ruling. But through the chair and our town manager, there are continuing possible strategy discussions or remediations. I know there was a cleanup out there recently regarding the Mugar property. So I just wanted to note that for, I know a lot of people have that sort of as a bellwether or something you're watching. But with that, what I'd like to do, Mr. Chair, if I could make a motion to suspend the select board meeting and to resume session in concert with the opening or commencement of this year's 2021 town meeting, I would also like to move that the select board shall remain in session at all times in current with the 2021 town meeting and that the adjournment of the select board will be concurrent with the adjournment of the 2021 town meeting. Second. Thank you very much, Mrs. Mohan. So a motion by Mrs. Mohan, a second by Mr. Heard, Attorney Heim. To Heard? Yes. Mr. Diggins? Yes. Mr. Helwin? Yes. Mrs. Mohan? Yes. Mr. DeCorsi? Yes. It's from the enemies vote. Great. Thank you very much and on to town meeting. So long.