 All right, so 75 hours later, so it's like new, yeah. The thing is I used both my old and my new web, as we got one of that, and it's a new one. Oh, it's got the pin counter board. Okay, so let us have it, let's bring it back. We don't need it, that's not an infertile pin counter board. Or drive back over, because I know it's all the way out of this, and the five computers. Oh, yes. Okay. So, Maggie, could I? I think you want to interact with the mailings going on. Oh, okay. Miss Dr. Trudeau, would you like to reset the job? Sure. I'm not live, so after we have more time, we're going to take it. I do? I don't count. Yeah, no, we're not live, so after we have a little more time than usual. Just give me a minute. There you are. Yeah, the deal, all right. Let's push it. All right, let's see what I got. Good, all right. That is fine. There we go. So, Jim and Aaron, just because I'm Boston Diana around down here, I wouldn't want you to feel left out in your packet. We can't hear you. In your packet down there, when it's on-pile, now you're just ignoring it. Yeah. So, there's stuff in there for Articles 13 and 17. Yeah. The things on our desk, it's a close-up packet. Yeah, got it. I'm sorry. The stuff that we would not have had a chance to read before tonight, but is now in front of us. These are at the bottom of the package here? Yeah. I'm talking about the stuff in the brown. She mean to count meeting packets. Brand new town meeting packet. Oh, yeah. You just saw when you got here. Did you say Article 13? Article 13 and 17. In addition to some other stuff that we're not doing tonight. I thought I said 30. 13 and 17. And we're talking about both of them. Okay, somebody who's presenting pulls out his paper. Okay, so where is this going? It's going up to $66,000. $65,000. Oh, $66,000. $65,000. $120,000. Is that all right? I'm sorry. I can move if you like it. It's been one of those days. Thank you, Mr. Thank you so much. It's very helpful. Oh, I'm so good when you think of this. Is that it? Yes. And I already have a lot of pictures from them. So if you would like that. I was thinking about doing that for the other ones. What's Article 13 for? Okay. So seriously? All right. We are ready. All right. So just remember that even though we're in this weird space. So let's not lose the general formality of how we work. All right. ACTV, are you ready for us? All right. Last time, to the April 18th select board meeting. We are underway at 6.34 p.m. We are in a strange location tonight because we are at the community room of the police department. That is because we are meeting on it Wednesday because of the Monday holiday and typically during this week we always meet on this Wednesday here because we still have, we can't take this week off because we have somebody zoning articles or rather warrant articles to get through. So, per usual we start with public comment. Does anyone here for public comment? Okay. So we will get through some untimed items before we get to our first time item at 6.45 p.m. Last meeting you'll recall we went until like 11 o'clock so we had a bunch of things we did not get to last time. So those are the post points to this agenda and one of those things is the letter of agreement for Pioneer Valley Planning Commission for district local technical assistance. I'm not sure if folks had a chance to look at this. This is something that the planning department and the planning board have been talking with Pioneer Valley Planning Commission about for some time getting technical assistance specifically on transfer of development rights. They want to create a bylaw or through some sort of analysis and regulation regarding to transfer development rights and this looked like a good opportunity to work with Pioneer Valley Planning Commission on and if you've read the letter it has the details about basically it requires that the town commit a certain amount of people hours to this project. The planning board is urging us to please sign this because we make the agreement with them official. It has their full backing and that is the information. For folks who are following along at home this information is part of our web packet. So does anybody have any questions about this size? I don't have a question, I just have a comment during the conference of planning committee's work my colleagues may remember the question of how to move around development rights came up in several different places and when I saw this letter we're actually going to be acting I'm trying to figure out how to do that. It came up in housing it came up in open space and economic development in three chapters that the idea of the concept was being explored. So here we go. So it's a good opportunity to move it forward. Ms. Stein, would you like to make a motion? Sure. I know that the select board acknowledged we seek from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in support of the scope of work for Amherst local technical assistance and affirm a commitment to work to implement the work performed as appropriate and in the best interest of the town of Amherst including provision of an in-kind match equivalent to 5% of the total budget which may include community staff for volunteer employment. Second. For other discussion. My name is unanimous. Thank you. Next up for untimed items we have parking and street closure requests and the first one is for the Granda Festival which is Saturday the 28th. You might recall that we have voted on this one already and approved the parking request but the office just got a little bit confused with the various parking request commitments that we have going on at that time and because that was going to interfere with the farmers market where we're changing the parking that we had granted to them and they have been notified of that and they're fine with it. We just want to make it official. So, this time would you like to make that a question? I move to admit that the slip would amend the parking reservation approval voted Monday, March 26, 2012 for the UNAS cameras cannabis reform coalitions at Stravaganza Festival to be held on Saturday April 28, 2012 for 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. from the 18 meter parking spaces on the south side of Spring Street parking lot and 2 meter spaces on the west side of Fortwood Avenue specifically the 4th and 5th meter space moving south from Spring Street to the reservation of the first 3 meter parking spaces on the east side of Pleasant Street going south from the intersection of Spring Street and 6 meter parking spaces originating at the 5th meter on the west side of Fortwood Avenue moving south towards College Street on Saturday April 28, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the UNAS cameras cannabis reform coalitions Stravaganza Festival. Second. I would say hi. That's unanimous. So, next up is the community fair. This is an annual request and we have two different motions that are attached to this and these are highlighted in yellow under revised motion sheets. And so there's the fair parking itself and also for the Lions Club iMobile to be part of that fair parking. And so are we going to start with the first which is not yellow? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, there are 3 motions all together. Alright, these are all for the community fair I move that the select board approve the closure of that section of Spring Street within the Spring Street parking lot from 2 p.m. Friday, May 18, 2012 to 12 a.m. Saturday, May 19, 2012 and again on Saturday, May 19, 2012 from 1.30 p.m. following the closure of the Farmers Market to 12 a.m. Sunday, May 20, 2012 Second. Further discussion? I move that the select board approve the reservation of 21 meter parking spaces on the westerly side of Bultwood Avenue originating at College Street moving north towards Spring Street 8 a.m. Tuesday May 15, 2012 from 12.01 a.m. Saturday, May 19, 2012 18 meter parking spaces on the westerly side of Bultwood Avenue originating at College Street moving north towards Spring Street from 8 a.m. Saturday, May 19, 2012 to 12 a.m. Sunday, May 20, 2012 and the 3 meter parking spaces on the easterly side of South Pleasant Street south of the taxi stand from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. Thursday, May 17, 2012 Friday, May 18, 2012 and Saturday, May 19, 2012. Second. Further discussion? I just wonder if that last it's always confusing when you talk about a.m.s and p.m.s, I just wonder if we should change that last 12 a.m. to midnight but I'm just as long as the parking people know what we mean surely they will know what we mean right they've done the softening and the reference is right on the mouth yeah I agree it's clear it's clear on the mouth of course right there all right further discussion further discussion, aye aye this is for the Lions Club even will be able to I move that the slide board approve the reservation oh it's I will be able to I'm lost lost in the underline yes you see I need the eye corrections thank you I move that the select board approve the reservation of the three meter parking spaces on the west lee side of Oakwood Avenue originating at Spring Street moving south toward College Street on Saturday May 19, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and that's for the Lions Club I will be able to further discussion all in favor say aye aye that's unanimous okay where are we so we still have another do we have any taxi licenses no we have special liquor licenses I move that the select board approve the old alcoholic special license for Danielle Laferriere and Greg Wardlaw on behalf of Amherst College to operate a cash bar at an end of school year event to be held in the King and Wayland Dorms and Amherst College from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. midnight Thursday April 26, 2012 second for the discussion all in favor say aye aye that's unanimous I move that the select board approve a wine and malt special license for Brenda Ryan on behalf of UMass Amherst for a reception in the Ponte Building University of Massachusetts Amherst from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday May 8, 2012 second for the discussion all in favor say aye aye that's unanimous alright public hearing so we really can't start early is there anything else we can do for 45 seconds just the first will you approve the minutes quickly I have read the minutes I have all my minor corrections I have lost them but I did pass a little bit the whole slew and then just passed my minor corrections to John second I'd say so I move that the select board approve the select board meeting minutes of March 5, 2012 March 26, 2012 and March 30 as amended second for the discussion I would just note I don't know how minor yours are but on the 1, 4, March 30 I would just like to include a tiny reference to having read the document as provided by Ms. Perot before we decided to warrant so it says reviewed the warrant I think we should also say that like I said I had yes that's a good point yes for not getting those in writing and okay minor just I asked that on the March 26 meeting that the report that they handled handed us from the shelter said that Ms. Quinn is the outgoing executive director and then Mr. Newman is the new executive director of great stores because I thought that was important and the rest is like that's good you're good with those? you can have my coffee John alright so then an additional for the discussion all in favor say aye aye unanimous minutes approved okay now we're ready for the public hearing alright this public hearing is called 646 and this is in fact two public hearings both to order at the same time which I'm told I was able to do open and close them together these are for this is a classic kind of technicality public hearing on the liquor license that we do periodically and this is for some change of stockholders at Ginger Gardens we have Christy Bodine here the attorney for Ginger Gardens is it open by Wednesday? yes we're in a funny place this time you just have to talk a little bit loud so that might pick you up so these are two related really sensitive transactions in November 2011 the corporation voted to add capital to that issue additional stock to the existing stockholders and that's what the November 11 packet is about and they added another $100,000 in stock to their capitalization and the packet attached includes all of the financial records from the people who purchased the stock quarry forms and all the other documents that were required by the ABCC to do this transaction and obviously they can't actually do it until it's approved but they voted to do this and I don't know how much detail or how many questions you might have about this Stockford have any questions about this stock folks who are following along at home now because the liquor licenses are so specific as to exactly what the town has approved all kinds of changes no matter how small need to come before us whether it's a change in stockholder because that license as approved lists the stockholders whether it's a change in the physical space in any way that all needs to come before us for approval it all needs to go through the same notification of public hearing process and that's what this is all about alright no questions from Stockford any comment from the public so then we need a motion to close both public hearings at 648 well second part of this item that's part one part two is was voted in January 2012 the it gets confusing some of the original stockholders and officers are leaving the company new officers are being elected and coming into the company the new officers are purchasing stock the people who are leaving are selling their stock back to the corporation so the ownership pool of the stock is changing and the numbers of shares owned by each person are changing and that's what the second application is for they essentially they accepted the resignation of two directors they increased the number of directors from two to three they appointed the three new directors they accepted the resignation of the president secretary of treasurer and appointed the new president treasurer and they bought back the shares of stock from the departing officers and then issued the redeemed shares out to new shareholders it took a long time to put this together because of all of the personal information and banking information and the subsidiary information that we needed to make it all happen again what's in this package is all the documents that are required by ABCC I hope to have this happen um that's what we're seeking a good one any questions from the slide board on that part of it and so again this is all in the same line of technicality as far as we're concerned but the information does still go to our chief of police who does the kind of checking that he needs to do on this kind of information and it is coming to us recommended for approval so there are no concerns on that end alright now we're done with all the technicalities I wonder if and perhaps while the area is still open you know we have these two packages I actually did read a part of them and the rest is just forms which luckily we don't have to fill out one of them stated the 14th and one stated the 15th and that's not actually reflected in our motion and I wonder if we can just add that to our motion in case we were looking for it I know this is a vote that was taken actually well actually you're right because I'm working at the cover sheet one stated the 13th and one stated the 15th and that was done deliberately so that we could separate them you're using your reference as to which transactions went and I would like to make sure that the motions reflect that processed in that order or they won't make any sense in other words if there's no ever transactions don't get processed all the way through then the January transactions aren't going to make any sense at all and my reason for referencing that beyond just being obsessive about things is that that summary memo was really helpful in terms of understanding what all the people were at was so I'd like to make it clear that that's there so when we make the motion we can just say whatever yeah so first we need a motion to close the public hearing I would like to move to close the public hearing then that's there for discussion when I'm closing the public hearing and I'll in favor say hi hi the public hearing is closed at 652 all right deliberation by select board we don't have any discussion would you like to make the motion or let the speaker make that she's all right again she's with me we agree I move that the select board approve the application of Amherst we're made incorporating business as ginger garden 351 Northampton road Amherst MA APCC license number 2400059 as voted in November 2011 for issuance of 10,000 additional shares of stock of stockholders of $10 per share to increase main capital by 1,000 100,000 as in the document dated March 13, 2012 second further discussion I'll in favor say hi hi next I move that the select board approve the application of Amherst we're made incorporating business as ginger garden 351 Northampton road Amherst MA APCC license number 2400059 as voted in January of 2012 to change directors and officers and to transfer stock from departing shareholders to existing and new shareholders with no change in net capital of corporation as in the document dated March 15, 2012 second I just want to say that once again I say this often I appreciate the package that we got that had all of these excruciating details on everything and especially the cover memos that we got that made it obvious what was going on so we could actually follow the president further discussion thank you thank you very much, thank you for the information thank you for coming in how are things going ginger garden? very well very well, we're going to call on the new president of the corporation they don't want me there tonight do they because I'm really busy excellent we're glad to hear it thank you 655 person timing we now have a common vitual license for froyo world anyone here for that? please come forward so we have in our packets the information for an application for froyo world which as I understand it is a new frozen yogurt place that's going in where that's a wrap used to be and you are? I'm Eric I'm one of the owners of froyo world could you repeat your name again? Eric Lee thank you thank you, great and so we like to have folks command when we get a new common vitual license for a new business just to give the business a chance to do a little commercial so that the folks who are watching the meeting know about it so congratulations on your start when you plan to open thank you, we'll be opening at the beginning of May in the first week we haven't set an official date yet in the first week it's going to be self-serve frozen yogurt so you just walk over and we'll have we'll have 10 flavors to choose from and you just choose however much you want and you put it on the toppings that you want whichever amount that you want and then it just goes away at the end and so you get the quantity of what you like and we have 4 different flavors that we rotate through our original tart is actually one of some awards in San Francisco and in Rhode Island as well and we're looking forward to being here and serving the community and the students for what you have done wonderful I was just in Florida recently and saw a self-serve yogurt place and I was visiting my in-laws and I was thinking I'd like to try that it came to you it's wonderful so you said you're opening in the beginning of May yes, fantastic any questions for Mr. Mason since we're just talking in general it gives you a little chance to tell us a little bit about your business and what you just did so I appreciate that the only other frozen yogurt that I'm aware of that we have in town associated with Go Berry is one of their issues is being locally sourced they have local milk they have local yogurt product is there anything like that associated with Brolyo World? Brolyo World like a worldwide thing or is it like a one person thing we're a franchisee that's it they they started out two years ago the first one was actually in New Haven by Yale and then they opened up another one in Providence by Brown then they opened the third one in Puerto Rico because somebody came up and liked the idea so they brought it back to Puerto Rico so that was international okay we all have 15 by the end of the summer it's increasing rapidly a lot of people like the flavors I tried a number of different Frollo shops before I decided to franchise with them I like the fact that they're local local in terms of a lot of places they start in the west coast and the owners are in the west coast and they hardly see what the franchisees are doing but with Frollo World they've come out a number of times just to visit the location they were here when this construction began so yes I love Frollo World and when I said they won the one in west coast it's actually there they spun off from a different company in the west coast and they brought the formula over to that side in the east coast so local sourcing we're not going to specifically state what a local farmers market will try but it depends on what season what season what's available okay the yogurt that we use is actually fresh yogurt well it's actually actual yogurt instead of using powder a lot of places use powder to create their food and yogurts ours are actually frozen really frozen yogurt that comes to us and we have a lot of machines so there's still a probiotics and everything that comes from eating alright any other questions we can answer I moved at the select board approve the application for common pictorial license for four year world 23 North Pleasant Street Amherst M.A. hours of operation 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Sunday manager Eric Lee second discussion hi congratulations thank you alright next up we have our annual Arbor Day proclamation and we have Mr. Snow to talk us about this welcome what is Arbor Day Arbor Day for the town of Amherst is going to be this Saturday 21st as part of the Amherst sustainability festival nationally it's a few months last Friday of April we try to merge it with all the environmental kind of things going on the sustainability this will also be the town's 25th year it's the 25th time the select board has had an Arbor Day and will we get extra points for being a tree city once we get into our capital requests that are coming up later one of our capital items is money to plant is it 2,000 trees over the next some number of years it does some state part of conservation recreation their grant program does look at your standing as a tree city U.S.A. community as part of their grant area we look at grants shows that the community is committed let's see is it time to read the proclamation sure because I know I love reading when I say even when I mean proclamation whereas in 1872 J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water cut heating and cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper, wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products trees in our town increase property values enhance the economic vitality of business areas and beautify our community trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal and Amherst has been recognized as a tree city USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation and desires to continue extreme planting ways now therefore we the select board of the town of Amherst do hereby proclaim April 21st 2012 as Arbor Day in the town of Amherst we urge all citizens to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our town's urban forestry program second I'm certainly going to vote favor of this as I always do but knowing that we're going to come back to this associated with joint capital planning I still wanted to ask Mr. Snow while he was here if he could give us and therefore the viewing audience that isn't live tonight but will I'm sure watch us with great attention at another time two questions or actually one's a comment and that is that there's a tree planting workshop associated with the sustainability festival and I just wanted to point out how great of an idea I thought that was because sometimes people think well I'm just going to plant the tree but there actually is a little bit of knowledge that's helpful to have to make the tree successful and so I think that was a really important part of the sustainability festival new 12 o'clock on the Swedish part that's great and the other thing is associated with all the trees we lost in the fall so with the storm do you have some estimate that you've provided to people I'm sure the town manager has one too associated with DPW but just to give people a sense of the fact that Harvard is always important to us in the forest as you said 25 years but having lost so many trees that it's a particular focus for us now how many trees we've lost or some percentage of something well I guess it's really it's very difficult to say how many trees we've lost made the trees that we are cleaning up and removed came from private property fell into the right way some of our trees fell into private property there's a whole effort by everybody in town so I really don't have a hard number of how many trees we've lost it's pretty safe to say that just about every tree was damaged in some way and a lot of that we won't see until trees come out of the leaf there's cracks in the branches for years to come we can see more decay in the branches as decay fungi things enter into these leaves so it's a big impact on the tree so it's not just a this year problem but it's a further discussion say hi hi hi hi hi hi hi thank you thank you very much for coming in looking forward to seeing you at the sustainability next up FY13 budget discussion we had back in January manager made his recommended budget proposal to us one of the elements of that was a unfunded a prioritized unfunded list for additions and restorations and at that time we put off discussion of that list because we didn't have enough information about how things were going to go at this point we have both a specific recommendation related to that list and to new information about the state budget so I'm going to hand it over to mr. to sort of bring it more than that sure and actually let me talk about the what was the unfunded list back from my January budget proposal I had a number of items on there while we still believe we're in a more stable year coming up than we have been in the last four or five years and that's a good thing it's still a very tight budget I had come up with a prioritized list of potential items to consider if additional funding became available through the state budget process and I'm now able to recommend to you that in the municipal budget we move forward with just one item off of that list the first item on the list and that is there's to be added to the lssc budget to strengthen and consolidate an after school program in collaboration with the emmer school department and we have a summary memo I know the finance committee at their meeting last Thursday night unanimously supported that recommendation from Superintendent Garak and I this recommendation comes on the heels of a independent study jointly funded by the town and the schools we engage some experts from Wellesley College who have special expertise in after school programming for young people they came up with a series of recommendations that included the fact that there were a number of strengths to our existing programs but we had five different programs at our three elementary schools total that having a single stronger program at each school with greater collaboration with our school staff would strengthen the program and we've been working with Superintendent Garak and all of the providers to work up a model LSEC will play a role in the oversight and administration of those programs but there basically be a single site director at each of the three elementary schools we would continue to serve roughly 200 students there'd be a equitable and uniform fee structure because the lion's share of the cost of providing this program would continue to be borne by participants in the program the town money, the 40,000 would be used to offer subsidies for participation for low and moderate income eligible families the school elementary budget there is I believe 30,000 allocated in the elementary budget the existing appropriation upcoming appropriation for an after school programming coordinator position that position would work with the site directors principals of the three elementary schools would be actively involved as well in program oversight and coordination and there's also some grant money on the school side in particular title one grants federal grants superintendent is working with staff to develop transportation rides home some sort of late afternoon bus to encourage more young people to participate and remove a barrier that may exist for some for their participation so the recommendation would be to amend the my original town manager recommendation at 40,000 for leisure services that will be reflected in the motion before you tonight the other functional thing required to get this consolidated program in place for the fall is to create a separate revolving fund under chapter 44 chapter 53 and one half this would be a separate fund just for after school programming it wouldn't be lumped in with the other LSSC programs that are accounted for in the LSSC revolving fund and we need to create a fund and there's a separate motion to that effect because the staffing model for this includes three full-time employees one for each of the three schools and they have related employee benefits the current revolving fund on the books authorized by town meaning many many years ago does not allow for full-time employees or benefit costs to be paid directly from the revolving fund revenues this separate fund under this other statute does allow for that so that would be the reason why we create that in the motion so I'm sorry Mr. Cooler would you like to add anything to that I just want to know if you wanted to distribute copies of the memo that is what you referred that was a work tradition yes Mr. Brook that being the first question then my second question was for us to remind the viewing public that this is going to be a different model than what we've done in the past although this current year there is CDBG funding associated with those subsidies which was in the amount of approximately $37,000 and that money was not recommended for the FY by for the next round of block grant funds so it was really important that we cover this so we didn't decrease participation by kids who definitely needed to participate these families needed to participate but at the same time we leveraged it into a better program overall based on all the discussions that we've had with the various providers and the consultants so we're not just filling a hole and we're hopefully making something better for everybody thank you so we've got a couple of different things going on here one is the replacement of funds as Ms. Burr talked about to ensure that we continue to be able to subsidize the situation for low income families for this program secondly is the program is going to be new and improved that's not really our problem from the budget perspective right now so so there's the replacing the money and there's talking about it in the context of the prioritized budget and restoration list this segues into the budget coordinating summary points which you had in your last week's package should have this week also it is BCG's joint recommendation that this is the only additional budget item to be funded right now this is the town manager and the superintendent's prioritized priority and everyone is really working to stay within that what had been essentially a reduced budget level from our earliest projections because of that time we're looking at less state aid than we were predicting taking us back to the January discussion about the prioritized list and taking us even further back to October when the select board did the budget priority guidelines for the town manager we were recommending that this be a year not of expanding programs, services or personnel so one of the reasons we put off the discussion of this list was to sort of see how things shook out and there is new state budget news and we'll get into that in a moment but that just kind of complicates things so first I would just want to kind of keep us focused on the list itself so one of the things that we talked about back at the budget meeting was how the things are prioritized and whether we would want to reprioritize them so on the one hand we've got the recommendation from the town manager and the school superintendent that this is the highest priority as has been the town manager's highest priority since the beginning the select board and others had identified some concern about some other items on this list and where they fell in the priority level based on the fact that they were essentially discretionary you know if veteran services went above the level that's budgeted or if do we have an over time question okay I'm glad to hear okay so maybe veteran services is the only one that's non-discretionary at this point just for you Sandy and I have had numerous conversations about this and basically your feeling is that we've budgeted very well and so you're confident with the budgeting level so not with the beginning where this falls on the list you're not expecting to keep a hold for on the veteran services to be on the budget because we have increased the funding in that budget in recent years so I don't think that's adequate the other issues on here are kind of these are things that in a perfect world we would have and that we're looking to do in the future and that's what we're saying but what you've talked about in the past is that there are in front of us in the public to know that these are things that we need down the road that we need to be looking to restoring our public safety staffing levels in the police department to increase our staffing levels in the fire department but this is not the year that the recommendation is to do that that's exactly right and that's exactly right and it's to increase awareness of need and we also need to proceed on a very cautious basis given that we're still in a relatively precarious financial position as a town and in the greater economy so economic development having a staff person I still consider to be a very very important initiative that the town should pursue I'm continuing to explore potential partnerships how we might fund such a position so that's not ready basically the public safety staffing yeah there's a need there's still some more work that's needed to analyze the best way to do that and how much etc so that won't stop so to select we have any comments on anything else about how these are prioritized and concerns about something other than the identified priority by the town manager and the school superintendent for this fund so just general comments just a general comment this is nothing from the capital budget I just pointed out because as I'll report later also report later there are lots of things that didn't get funded from capital that in some cases have a payback even and still could not be included so I just wanted to approve two items one is this list of course was in the big budget which is available online in terms of increasing awareness this is not in the finance committee but there wouldn't be a purpose to it I wonder if we might consider publishing something perhaps with a section on that capital needs I realize that the capital plan usually shows that things shoved out to the side so they're not gone altogether but to remind people that these are priorities I would not want to call it the prioritized list of budget restoration items anymore but the forward thinking toward FY 14 stuff that's on the horizon that we know we're going to need to be dealing with next year so that's just not something we've really done before but I'm not sure if there's another way of getting that information into town meeting without confusing people into thinking that oh well if I hear in the news we're going to get some extra money that means that item 3 is suddenly going to be funded so I would say that the capital plan actually identifies a whole bunch of things that aren't funded I think that what's going to happen at town meeting if it follows typical pattern is there will be some kind of statement from the town managers school superintendent and library director who might allude to the things that they were able to include in their budgets this year I'd be a little bit wary about putting something like this out specifically because it looks like it's these are all the unfunded needs where in fact if you knew you were putting out an unfunded need it might be a lot more comprehensive and it doesn't include the schools and libraries stuff so I think it's good in our ongoing discussions to keep referencing stuff like this that there's all kinds of things that we would be paying for if we thought that it remains to do that at this point but we don't want to kind of put the town out of sync with the other ones but it's a good point so close to these things that we're really familiar with it and the general public in town meeting might not kind of recognize the greater context of all the things that we don't fund both capital and operations my other comment was I wondered if the town manager would like to mention and obviously we can come back to this at the budget point but since it's right here on the restoration list there has been some press associated with the firefighters indicating that their staffing need is perhaps being perceived as more grievous than we had expected but is of significant concern in terms of availability associated both with a large number of student calls but also just in general is it appropriate to assure people that as we continue looking at the 24 hour schedule etc that more will come out of that and we will have a better understanding of what our needs are or is it simply that we don't think we have enough money to do more at this point or we're sure we don't need to do more at this point how would you care? I'd say a couple things in the face of the worst recession in 70 years we look at the staffing levels of our town departments over the past 10 years that we've documented each fall in our fiscal trends report while overall town of Amherst staffing is down 11% I believe it is over the past 10 years there's been a net increase in public safety staffing and in particular fire and EMS while we were cutting in most other departments we've added 5 firefighter EMT positions and in the current year we've added another one our inspector position has gone exclusively through inspections we're replacing that with a line firefighter EMT so that's the record and it's in direct acknowledgement of the need and the rising call volume on the EMS side over the past 20 or so years my budget recommendations back in January and the big blue book posted online may make reference to some additional staffing analysis that fire chief Nelson and I will be doing in the coming year on the basis of that we'll come forward in the future with what we hope are appropriate staffing recommendations going forward I'm very very proud of all the work that our men and women do every day in our fire and ambulance service it's one of the most highly regarded departments in the region and it's well deserved call volume is growing placing stress and I think we've been very responsive to that need okay then any other comments on the budget and restoration just in brief no there was a comment or question on the town but the town does studies for all sorts of things from physical planning to other purposes and it's useful to consider here that we went to the notorious outside consultants and got a study that got us a concrete budget outcome so this is one example of how studies are actually used for purposes that I think all find laudable okay anything else done about the recommendations so this is recommended by budget coordinating group representatives who shared the priorities across the different budgets and we have a motion I think we ought to vote to support the recommendation then the leader will be actually voting on specifically the e-mails incorporating that into the budget so I'm not sure if we actually have a I don't think we do if you want one because that's a revolving fund you want us to do that now I was thinking it's more just sort of supporting the recommendation but I guess that that's a pretty revolving fund the revolving fund doesn't come before or does it come before town yes it'll be presented it'll be presented during article 12 the current plan is to present it immediately following the community services budget appropriation vote good I actually part of that vote it's part of the general budget vote the money is and so there's the technicality of the creation actually created the fund I thought that had to be done that way okay good and then the only other comment I wanted to make is in regards to this level we hand out Mr. Cooler can cover his peers now because when I was at BCG I was concerned about some of the expense sheets that are attached because they are not particularly clear as to which of the five programs they're discussing so for those of you who are not into all the arcane details don't worry about it but I would not pass it out as some particular the memo part and the chart are great the numbers in the back yeah don't worry about that leave that to other people but it does not explain how all different five programs are working out and that's fine but we need to know that that's not our everyday thing but for people who are totally interested in those details they can obviously contact the school and they can get more details on how each program is working and I'm sure that the consultant has some additional information that they can look at that they still chose to do so but it's not necessary for town community to see that alright so we have general agreement no opposition support for the town manager's recommendation from the restoration list so that is by consensus and we have the need to support or recommend the this revolving fund thing so since we're getting into the warrant articles right now we might as well just do this because it's a false anything I'm trying to decide what makes much sense this is increased by bottom of the page 36 of our finance book it says approval okay so actually I think we're going to put off this yellow motion on the motion sheet until we get into the operating budget okay okay okay so consideration by consensus now we're moving into voting in a sunny select board position about finding warrant articles and we're starting with article 8 FY12 budget amendments and Mr. Fuller is here to talk with us about that and I'll just note to slide forward that everybody has on their desk packets tonight an updated assignment list following along with where we are that's where we are okay Mr. Fuller budget amendments for details thank you there are three amendments that will be presented under this article but this time we are still developing the exact numbers for part A which is the shift of money between and among different parts of the budget and the most important part of that is fully funding the collective bargaining agreements that would sign last December the comptroller has been working out how much each functional area needs to be fully funded between now and the end of the year including that transfer of that's $585,000 it's in general government reserve for wages and salaries to transfer among the other areas and when she is back in town next week she will complete that work to see exactly what the balances are and what her projections are between now and the end of the year so we will have a recommendation at town meeting part B is to transfer $91,508 from free cash to help clear claims trust fund this is money that would receive notification from the federal government that we were seeing that much reimbursement for the Medicare part D benefit that we provide for retirees who are Medicare eligible for their prescription drugs we have notification of this in September that amount will become part of free cash at the end of this year and what we have been doing in town meeting quarter four or five years now is what we know that estimate making a vote of that into the trust fund and the reason it goes into the trust fund is the reimbursement is based on purchases of drugs by expense in the trust fund and those include town employees regional school employees and town peasant employees the trust fund benefits all of them so that's what we put the money so that's part B and then part C is to appropriate $426,206 from free cash into reserve fund to pay the cost associated with the October 2011 snow storm as you know we had a big snow and ice storm in October $426,000 of cost for cleanup and we have submitted to FEMA reimbursement request that we estimate will cover at least 75% if not more of those costs but the sort of paperwork is rolling along at its own pace and after consulting with the comptroller and with our outside auditors in terms of timing for all of these things we thought the safest thing to do was to make a full appropriation of the costs into the reserve fund and that the end of the year the finance committee can make an appropriation from that reserve fund for the amount that we may still need net of whatever we know we're getting from FEMA so it's somewhat of a timing issue to make sure we have everything covered before the end of the year anything that doesn't get used by the end of this fiscal year we'll revert back to free cash and if for some reason the FEMA reimbursement is delayed beyond the summer it will become part of next year's free cash but our hope is that we will get it all in time so that we will appropriate no more than a quarter of this and maybe even less depending on what the final FEMA number is so we've got three parts the first part is a whole year primarily collect bargaining primarily as the contractor has been monitoring spending there may be some other tweaks but as a general matter the bulk of this will be because of the collective bargaining settlements and that will be a transfer of money it's not an increase to the budget it's just transferring from the reserve salary reserve out to the various departmental budgets right and so part A is no matter what it might involve it's all transfers it's just from one area to another and those figures are not in front of us anyplace here yet because it's still being and we'll be ready for town as it always is but there's nothing that we know of at this point that's any sort of surprise that we would expect and so presumably the select board is comfortable approving part A without an amount because we know what the description is going to be and our recommendation would not be based on what the finance committee isn't right they you know those finance people they really like to know that alright questions on part A, B or C for Mr. Poehler Mr. Hayden I just want to note that on part C I guess we need to do that because some of the bills will be due before the FEMA money would be available or you know the people who clean the stuff up we've actually paid these bills and we want to make sure by the time we close the books at the end of the fiscal year we don't have a deficit alright this time we don't have to be I wonder if we want to say parts A, B and C on this I believe that the select board written in to April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 8 parts A, B and C on FY 12 second for the discussion favor say aye aye that is unanimous we'd like to speak to the amendments this is one that we just have to say forward okay thank you and then next up we have article 12 this is the beginning of the operating budget we're going to start with the community services budget and we also have Whaley Greeny here who is among the petitioners who has put forth a petition regarding the community services budget so we wanted to put both of those together so let's start with the community services budget then we'll talk about the petition thank you the community services budget is recommended at $1,692,882 and that within that number it's included the $40,000 we discussed a minute ago for subsidies for the after school program and I don't know how much to tell you if I can go into the five budget but this covers this covers the budgets for public health senior center veteran services LSSC includes the goals in the golf course it is an increase of $117,000 or 7.5 percent increase from the current year do I have any questions about the operating budget for community services as proposed Ms. Steiner do we have to read the part that's underneath it first to recommend the operation of the after school program I think those are separate items they aren't totally separate okay so select board has had the budget book since January and we've been going through it with any questions we have sort of week by week so we have lots of opportunities to consider community services budget so then this is just a technical question so with the addition of this revolving fund just be like a secondary motion under a part A to a motion or something more parts than usual alright so then before we vote on a recommendation for community services budget Ms. Greeny why don't you tell us about your petition article so the petition article is to increase the community services budget lined by an amount and you'll talk about that and the way we expect this to be dealt with at town meeting is that you're actually going to make a motion under the community services budget consideration is that correct good evening my name is Laylin Greeny and here I am representing the housing for all group and we discuss this bar and article today and you just asked me what's our largely move at the town meeting floor originally we wanted to be part of the process so in October we came to the select board meeting in the beginning of the budget season to talk about including this $66,000 of human services in the community service budget however it was not received well received by the select board so subsequently in the January town manager budget it was not included so we felt in order to highlight the need for continuing funding as a historical track record the town has had the reputation that we have starting in 1979 we had something called charitable funding we committed at that time so it's a 30 year track record that we support human services so we felt that we need to bring this to the consciousness of the town meeting and the select board to highlight A, it's a historical track record that immersed citizens in town meeting including the select board have supported human services in the most generous way $193,000 in the height of this funding and B is to continue to highlight even though we do have the CBBG funding to help address some of the needs but our continued position is that CBBG is not a reliable funding source as you might be aware this last round two years ago when we applied for the sixth round of CBBG I quote one of the staff members told the human services network meeting about three weeks ago at this bank center that we barely squeezed by meaning that the highest cut out point is $29 and we had 28 points so if we exceeded $28 then the town members would not have received the CBBG money so the citizens for our group continue to feel that funding for human service from a CBBG is not reliable so based on the track record of the town select board and citizens and committees we feel that we need to continue our good practice and to fund services that have been supporting the town's vulnerable populations and as a person who is in the field doing this work I want to assure you that basically every dollar the town contributes the payback is tenfold so for example the not real loan program as I was the coordinator for over a dozen years it received $6,000 on the town on average and the budget was about $60,000 at the time so we take into consideration of all the work and the food donation put forth by volunteers and whole foods, cheddar joes all that it's $60,000 budget if you include all those external benefits we will provide you over $100,000 of benefits to the community so I use that as example to show that the money you invest in a human service agency of people in different categories you really need to be the benefits and the idea of where to find this money every year for the past three years or four years now we have the luck of the good management financial management by our finance committee finance director Mr. Poole and our previous finance director Mr. Nusanti returned to the town copper so we feel it's justifiable given the needs and given that the surplus we have enjoyed I would like to respectfully request that $66,000 out of the town's $66 million budget be appropriated for the purpose of aiding those who are vulnerable in terms of their food, shelter services so you've gotten into the guts of the proposal also so that's good and we'll touch on that in a moment as far as housing is going to be dealt with at town meeting it's presumably during the discussion of the community services budget you're going to make a motion to increase I'm sorry that cannot address this question so there are two thoughts that we have now as a group so we would make an amendment on the floor to increase the community service budget by $66,000 and then the motion maker will speak to this article and maybe other invited speakers will come forth with permission of the emollerator to provide additional witness testimony of the benefits of these programs and if it does not get us the support in this a minute discussion then we would go back to regroup and check in with other human service entities and other constituents who have been benefiting from these services to ask whether we want to continue the article 13 since it's already on the town warrant whether we want to at that point to bring it to the town meeting floor so there is the possibility that our sentiments is expressed and is heard and there is good support but not voted in then we would perhaps just out of the grace now to take up more of the town meeting time you might withdraw the article so those are two positions that we have developed today so I just wanted to give some idea of how we're going to be talking about this in town meeting as we are here in the context of the community services budget as recommended let's see if we can start here go right ahead it's a lot you don't speak about I get plenty of answers I guess my question I think we all agree about the importance of human services and we feel the pain of those who are not being served or whose services have been cut and we feel the pain every time they work on these budgets but I guess my question is just to make clear we're restoring $68,000 to $6,000 here it's coming out of something else and that's part of the motion is simply to put money in here and then we would have to decide where we're taking it from in other words there's not money where we can drop it's a zero sum game and because that's always been the issue too and to manage the budget is a tough thing to vote the money is easy to find the money is harder Ms. Brewer One is that I think that we are going to continue to have to agree to disagree on the role of the town in human service funding certainly I was serving back in town meeting starting in 1999 and I'm aware of the many lists of agencies that we did fund it was a program that seemed to work well unfortunately just as we don't have as many town employees that we used to there are things that we now do differently and this has not been something I've been comfortable in insisting that the tax payers fund from tax dollars preferring that they go that people who already are supporting these agencies continue to do so personally I also share the frustration that block grant funding is only available to five agencies in any given time we used to give relatively small grants to some agencies and as Ms. Brewer pointed out sometimes those very small amounts can actually be leveraged into larger amounts but unfortunately that's what the state does to us in terms of that I do think it's not really quite accurate to state that no town funding has been appropriated to support any human service agencies while it's true that block grant funds are not tax support I think it's disingenuous to say that it's no town funding so I caution about using terminology I do also want to mention that as Ms. Greeny pointed out that this group did come before some October and I appreciate they have been involved in the budget process through the time this is not something that as in past years is just suddenly appearing on the floor or something we're hearing about that night we might be talking about it I appreciate that there's a separate warrant article and Ms. Greeny's outlined on the one hand we can try to be successful within this budget item if not then there's still the warrant article separately and so I really appreciate taking it full advantage of the process that's available so that everyone's aware of this going in that it's no surprises to anyone in terms of if we were to add that $66,000 which as I've indicated I do not support technically the third item community development in the finance is that where we would add it back in the line that we've zeroed out is that what we'd call it I mean I understand that's for the total but there is no such thing as other you know there's public health, senior center community development that's what the service does so what we just call community development because it's not cool obviously so I mean just from the technical standpoint I think it's where that line has been zeroed out on page 35 I guess it would be as far as where we're still to be doing that it's huge thank you other questions or comments for this time and this is under the form of Caltech when Human Services was which worked out to CDBT there was an assurance that money to be delivered we would still take on some human services financing just the way I can best describe it that we wouldn't leave human services in the lurch I'm just wondering what we're thinking is I want to be fair because it wasn't your switch the one making the fight I'd like to know well I don't have the authority to bind a future select board or town meeting to a course of action I share the the value set I think of the community that the services provided are very important because we are receiving close to a million dollars a year now and community development block grant monies that we weren't receiving just a few years ago and a portion of that funding about $200,000 can be spent on human services we're spending more in total than we had in many many years on human services so to the extent that that program is drastically cut or the town becomes not eligible in a given year then that would be part of the conversation about priorities for funding needs going forward one of the things we're funding that we're all very proud of is our emergency shelter which takes roughly half of the human services money from our block grant that was a commitment we weren't making three years ago that we are now so it has shifted it has shifted I would just build on Mr. Musanti's point a little bit that at this point while the community development block grant money is as unstable as any of our other funding sources at this point to make a decision in advance of that situation changing seems to me not necessary should we lose our community development block grant status then it would be for the select board for the community to consider how do we address those needs going forward and that would involve the things that we currently fund with the block grant money as well as the other opportunity the other possibilities that are out there and I'll just remind us that we're having this conversation in the context of having just had the discussion at our last meeting about the cost of living adjustments that we give to our employees I have the historical record here at the time that Ms. Green is talking about when we first started funding the different human service agencies those were also content when we were given considerably more money to the employees so that's an area that we've had to cut back we're just talking about our public safety needs in the police department as well as fire and ambulance that would be part of the context that we're talking about of these different funding priorities we just talked about the unfunded list was both operationally and for capital in the town budget so it's in this greater context that we would have to have these conversations and certainly we would having that in advance of having our CDBG status change making a decision rather not the consideration but making a decision differently in advance of our CDBG status changing seems premature and unnecessary to me because we really are spending considerably more money on human services than we have spent in past years in particular to these outside agencies and as Mr. Moussanti said we've increased our profile in town provided services essentially through the winter emergency shelter so I also appreciate that Ms. Green brought the same request to us back in the fall when we were considering the budget priority guidelines for the very same reasons that we did not prioritize it at that time I personally would not be prioritizing it also now I think it's very important that we kind of keep our eye on these things but I don't see a reason to change what had been our recommendation or what has been our recommendation so far that this is not a year that we're changing our profile in these funding areas and I would also just say that this thing about returning a million dollars every year to the general fund so as select board will recall when we have our end of year budget review with Mr. Cooler and Ms. Aldridge we talk about the different amounts of money the TV slivers of all of the little budgets that have come back at the end of the year that equals something like 1% just over 1% or just under 1% of the budget we talk about it as a million dollars it sounds like some big dramatic thing that we take it from that excess fund of a million dollars this is a tiny bit of money from all over the budget areas that has to do with positions that aren't filled etc I don't understand why sometimes it comes up like this but this is this million dollars as though we budgeted this additional funds when we're projecting the revenues and the expenses for the coming year to come within almost 1% of accuracy is extraordinary and when you think about what the options are you're either going to land exactly right which is impossible or you're going to be hopefully 1%-ish on either side you certainly don't want to be 1% below such that we have budgeted inappropriately and now we're in a hole so we come up approximately 1% above which I think is really extraordinary budgeting I'm really uncomfortable with it being discussed as though we're budgeting for a surplus every year what we're doing is budgeting with great conservatism and that's why we have been fortunate and not found ourselves in any fall at the end of the year so I think that's really to be praised and not to be talked about as though this is some extra money we should be spending ahead of time I don't even know how you would do that where would you pull a million dollars from you can't because it's coming from a couple of bucks here and there and everywhere so is there a recommendation on the community services budget which will also be a recommendation on article 13 so I would say the sentiment as I'm sensing it from the slide is that we're going to be supporting the community services budget at the amount that we talked about previously with that additional 40,000 for the after-school program thank you and to not support article 13 of petition to add additional money Ms. Brewer I just want to make sure I have this right article 1335 the line item for leisure services that does include the 40,000 that we keep talking about so the bottom line total is the right total yes you're referring to line 35 of the finance committee report yes so it's within the LSE line of the 522-331 that's where that 40,000 is other questions to comment on before yes specifics if you're in doubt, ask your question I just want to say that I guess one different for me also that if memory serves the suggestion Mr. Weiss did take up a restoration of one piece of a social service item that was missing with the Cambodian outreach worker was that 2010 I believe that ever get removed from the budget that was a giant mess under the old but anyway I guess my point is in that case someone came to us with a very specific request saying we've been promised certain things would happen this is not being done whereas I guess the difference here is this is asking to restore and lump sum for general purposes that was one of those cases where somebody saw a clear need something had fallen to the cracks in the way that the townshare said it would the townshare of costs for that program is in the budget so you're free to point is that town meeting and community members express their opinions loud and clear and that stuff ends up in the budget and that we are responsive to when things change so in fact the CBBG money is in response to the fact that that was back when we were cutting the budget dramatically we had huge cuts the year that we eliminated that funding and found a new way to pay for those services which was through the community development block grant so the whole budget process is responding to these needs so this is I guess I would just add it's too bad in a way that so much of this goes back to private initiative but we do have things such as the most fundraiser by the Amherst Fund every spring which benefits precisely social service agencies some of whom very much appreciate the small bits that we can't get off the CBBG because of the five organization limits I also want to sort of as a wrapping up comments for me I want to say that I appreciated being challenged by article 13 or article 12 however that ends up being because it goaded me into sort of taking it apart are we doing enough it's 66 it's a nice number it's an interesting number but where would it go or where is it going already we talked about how CBBG we wouldn't have talked about that as thoroughly otherwise we wouldn't have understood as well what services are being provided what services we intend to provide one way or another CBBG being the current way but you know I look at the seven eight items that are in the fund now these are services that are getting funded that do help these very people and article 13 has offered us the opportunity to articulate to say out loud that you know public health the senior center community development better services, leisure services are all being supported either with tax money or in another chapter someplace else with other monies that's work that we're doing and I'm glad that we're able to say that thank you and just to express further that some of the agencies that are no longer getting direct funding from community development block do have other financial arrangements with the town it would be nice if we could quantify what the situation is with center for new Americans and big brother, big sister who had renovations made to their space and very favorable lease terms with the town in the bank center so these are other ways it's not that we've left these places high and dry we've tried to find other ways that the town can use its resources and its strengths to support them because all of these agencies really are critical to out the town questions Yes, I would compliment the finance committee on including under article their position on article 13 they do mention although it doesn't have a great amount of detail they do mention the rent and space at affordable cost and without the dollars attached might be useful for town meeting but they did cover that on page 50 and I think that is incredibly important to point out. One thing I just wanted to mention the petitioner in case you might not be staying for the entire time is that the only piece of paper that we have received the best of my knowledge associated with article 13 and this motion under the community services budget is what's going out in the third town meeting mailing today which happened to be delivered to us tonight and at least the version I have of that is the exact same information on both sides of a piece of paper it's not two different sets of information so would you like me to clarify that? Sure, okay. The reason is that on the first version we failed to put the petitioner's name in the group so the town staff was kind enough to award us so he was kind enough to print the version including the petitioner's name on it and not to waste any paper as I put it on the same piece of paper so I appreciate all the things that we very resource minded. So it wasn't that you intended there to be a different set of information on that. That's good. I'm glad to hear that. So if I could make a couple points here. Sure. Thank you. First of all I'd like to thank Mr. Hayden for his keen comment about in the community service line items that what we are supporting such as mutual service, union center et cetera. So it shows that these are areas we pay attention to and we are proud that we are supporting them. So that means to the comment here I'm going to make that how about the people who have less means to be able to make you know a good decent meal at home have a roof over their head. So how about these people so that's one question I'm puzzling trying to puzzling out is a tax payer I heard recently in Tennessee who has to live the fire department has this interesting thing. They do not respond to a fire call unless you pay $100 search of $100 fee in events and one time this one household failed to pay that so they didn't come to put out a fire so when they did come eventually the house was burned down but they still charged them $3,500 so the cautionary tale is it's terrible to reach that point unless you pay money in advance before your fire department will come so in that time they can't afford to have fire department service and in our town here regardless whether you pay or you don't pay you will have fire truck come to you and pay and then put out the fire so it's just the value so we really appreciate public safety so therefore we have fired department service come to us without having we do not have the requirement that you have to pay the fee so the same term on the same token if you really value those who have less means than you and I have sitting in this room then let us consider putting on my item there says that we value you we would like to help you to be part of this community so that's what I want to put on the table and I also want to say my appreciation for this time asking this point in question when the CDBG does get eliminated because of very competitive process and this is the year this is going to happen this is the seventh time the cycle will come up and we will know I think by July from what we will tell at that meeting that we will know whether we will be qualified for the CDBG this round or not so when that does happen if we are a little bit qualified for the CDBG so what that means is in 2013 that we will have no funds for the shelter which we are so proud of so these are two points I would like to add to the discussion thank you I want to be clear on you know how managers finance directors select board members we spend a portion of our day lobbying other levels of government usually for money including the federal government and we have a commitment from the federal government for CDBG funding for the federal fiscal year that begins October 1st 2012 that's the list that I presented for discussion purposes to the select board back in the fall following the advisory committee review of applications for money we submitted block grant proposals to the state and feds that has been approved the issue is what happens the following fiscal year and beyond that program is reauthorized and communities reapply to this many a ton but the budget that's for four town meeting is fiscal year 13 July 1 2012 to June 30 2013 the CDBG money that's been allocated to the town that covers that period is secure that's correct that's understood but that's looking ahead alright I think we're ready for the community service budget and article 13 I move that the select board recommend to the 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 FY 13 operating budget community services in the amount of $1,692,882 for the discussion so I'll just note that again that is the original amount that was about to be talked about from the alright all in favor say aye that's unanimous and there's also an article 13 the yellow one I move that the select board not recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 13 the petition article restoration of the line item community services in FY 13 budget second for the discussion all in favor say aye thank you very much thank you for coming in now let's do this one in yellow so that we're official this is the established fund I think one of the reasons that I could vote against the motion that I just voted against is because we are putting the funding in now and now we have to see what happens in the future I would that's all I have to say okay the one in yellow is to set up the revolving fund I move that the select board recommend that the town establish the revolving fund pursuant to MGL chapter 44 section 53E in one half the operation of an after school program from which the receipt shall be credited for expenditure by the LSSC department which is authorized by the department head of the LSSC for his or her design for supplies and services including salaries and benefits of staffing and related administrative costs for the program operation with a limit of $400,000 that may be expended from said revolving fund in the fiscal year which begins in July 1st, 2012 second can I just suggest to the board that the motion be tweaked so that after the word recommend on the top line that we add the same phrase theology as the budget other budget recommendations that it's recommended to the April 30th, 2012 annual town meeting article 12 FY13 operating budget with the remainder that's what we're doing second is there good explanation for this memo that you handed out to us already that's not in the town meeting packet right? there is an explanation in the finance committee which I only received when I walked in tonight good I'm just making sure that people are going to understand what's up there any further discussions? all in favor say aye aye that was right okay so now we're in the operating budget usually one person just speaks to the various parts of the operating budget as to why we recommend the recommendation we don't have to go into great detail about it because finance committee does we like to adopt the operating budget as their thing to say speak to anyone? are you already do the operating budget? do I? okay I guess I'll do it again thank you for volunteering okay thanks for that alright moving right along we have plenty more we have plenty more okay so let me just tell folks how this is going to work we don't have as long as we stand to be here tonight but Mr. Puler is also coming back to our meeting next week so if we find that this is getting very long we can postpone any parts of the operating budget that we have gotten to I don't expect the rest of us to take very long but in case it does we can postpone any of it until next week which is to say Monday five days from now and I know Ms. McGinnis is here to speak about the petition article she contacted and is expected to be here tonight also okay is there time for that? it's not a specific time but so we I can't let Ms. McGinnis go home yet because we can't deal with her so that she can go home because we don't have a petitioner here and I think the petitioner is going to come in okay so moving right along to the other parts of article 12 FY13 operating budget second policy public safety budget is recommended at $87,671 an increase of 4.5% or $380,000 and there are really no changes in personnel the increased cost that really have to do with what the department increases otherwise expenses are pretty well funded in these areas short and sweet short and sweet Ms. Burr just to follow up on something Tom Andrew mentioned earlier about the inspector position so I know we've talked about that in the past when did that take effect that we were able to the firefighter who was doing inspection so now we have a firefighter but we're not actually increasing it's part of the new collective bargaining agreement with the firefighters union the person doing the inspector role has been in that role it was not formalized in that bargaining agreement the line firefighter is expected to start work later this spring for the town another question about public safety again we've sort of already had the conversation about the funding that we would like to do in the future to increase both the police force as well as the fire and ambulance force but that's not the recommendation this year I'm starting I heard that the spread board should recommend to the April 30th, 2012 annual Italian meeting on article 12 F4A13 operating budget public safety in the amount of $8,877,651 second move to discussion favor say hi oh yes I know Miss Bruretzi is going to do all of this she's just lucky and with Lynn she's really lucky she just gets to say what they said in that case public works budget is recommended at $1,996,684 the increase of 2.9% or $55,454 and again no change in FDEs and operating expenses are level one of the things on the restoration last we didn't go into detail about this now we did talk about it in January was the idea that over the years a certain amount of DPW work has been moved to project-based funding which is a complication for DPW and again that's something that we would like to move away from because that covers a whole bunch of kind of day-to-day stuff the filling of potholes etc but we're not able to do that this year is there any having not recommended the funding of that from the restoration list does any of that change for this year we would need to wait until next year's budget to make a change in that situation I'm recommending we wait although it's a need the primary well look at it two ways during the worst of our economic downturn we were able to retain staffing levels in the DPW but it came at a cost of reduced flexibility about how that work force is allocated because some of these dollars are dedicated from projects the work needs to be allocated to those projects which gives the superintendent less flexibility to allocate the work force particularly in some of our seasonal needs like potholes and things like that so it remains a need we're just not in a financial position yet to do anything about it in the coming year so that's just a good reminder to talk about all the things that we are also not funding needs that we're not funding in the larger context of this budget okay questions other questions or comments about the public works but it's not I move that the slide board recommend to the April 30th, 2012 annual town meeting article 12, FY13 operating budget public works in the amount of 1,996,684 dollars second discussion favorably, aye thank you, Alyssa if I'm to get to a point that you're not willing to do it just get it alright next up we have conservation development conservation development is recommended at $927,560 which is an increase of 4.7% or 41698 dollars the FTE's are unchanged and the operating expenses are level 5 anyone have any questions about conservation and development I move that the slide board recommend to the April 30th, 2012 annual town meeting article 12, FY13 operating budget conservation and development in the amount of $927,560 second discussion favor say aye aye are we planning on when we get to town meeting will we be working through the book in order just because I know we want community services public safety public works and then we move backwards to conservation and development do you know I can't remember how I put these in order but last I knew finance committee had not determined the order that last week they did it is reflected in the finance committee report and in general what they did is they took two drawings lotteries one is between library schools and town which one of those three would go first and then within town which one of the first general idea was general government always goes last because there is amendments to other functional areas sometimes and then they wanted to put public works second to the last so it would be right next to the enterprise funds and then what they did is they looked at the order of conservation and development community services and public safety and the order they were last year and they just moved everybody up one one to the end and number two went to number one and so forth so a little merry-go-round with the idea that every year they would sort of rotate those three and just a reminder to folks what that's about so again this is kind of the town and finance committee and everyone being responsive to what the community's desires and priorities are this was an issue that was raised by committee coordinating committee several years ago there was some concern that perhaps the order in which the budget areas were considered might influence the discussion and how whatever budget amendments might have favoring ones that came earlier or something like that so to give everyone sort of an equal shot at being considered first or last or whatever finance committee has been very responsive to that so they do this lottery system so it's a good question to clarify and go to know that the order in the finance committee report is how that will be considered at town alright let's see what happened have we had a motion yet? where are we conservation development and so now we're going to yes general government recommendation is six million eighty eight thousand four hundred eighteen which is a reduction of point zero one percent or three thousand fifty nine dollars and the reason for the reduction is substantially because of reductions in the line items for employee and benefits and specifically since we have all of our collective bargaining contracts settled there is no money in a salary reserve for FY13 all the salaries are now allocated to the functional areas in the departments and so that money comes because no money has to be budgeted but in general government overall did decrease because of that if it weren't for that it would decrease the other departments were increased by three point eight percent and again that reflects the allocation of salary and that department changes among most departments and also reflects a slight bump in the elections department because we have one more election next year questions or comments about the general government budget and again this is a book we've been firing over for many months so we will asking them along the way I move that the select I move that the select work recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 FY13 operating budget general government in the amount of six million eight eighty eight thousand four hundred and eighteen dollars second I I next the general fund we can get in this so this are the interest in principal payments for bonds that the town has already sold and it's recommended that it's been one million eight hundred twenty seven thousand eighty eight dollars of that interest is one million four hundred and thirty two two hundred and forty eight and three three ninety five one twenty eight and I would just note that the numbers here are slightly different than what they were in the manager's budget because the manager's budget makes estimates of what our bonds sales are going to be and in fact we did sell both bonds and so these reflect the bond sales from March that number go up or down from the manager's budget that went up by one thousand dollars alright for the questions then on general fund indebtedness I move that the select work recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 FY13 operating budget general fund indebtedness in the amount of one million eight hundred and twenty seven thousand three hundred and sixty eight dollars second discussion we have enterprise our fund is on page 44 of the and the appropriation recommendation there is three million four hundred ninety eight thousand three hundred fifty four dollars and that is slightly different from what you saw in the town manager's budget because we sold our water debt in March and it came in less than what we had estimated by about four thousand dollars so this budget is four thousand dollars less than the general budget overall it's a nine point four percent decrease in the total amount of spending in this area and obviously one more odd word about the enterprise funds if you look in the finance committee report you see there's a gray line that has that three million four hundred ninety eight thousand dollars there's another number right below that four hundred twenty seven six hundred forty one that's the amount of reimbursement that the water fund makes to the general fund for the activities of general fund departments and so the total spending within the department that's supported by rates and the extent that you ever use surplus funds which we're not using this year we're spending three point nine million but because of the way the department of revenue requires us to report these appropriations we appropriate the total bonus that general fund subsidy so it's a little bit of an odd way of doing it but it keeps us out of trouble with the dor by doing it that way and everything gets spent the way it's supposed to be spent the free cash balance in the water fund is going to be a little over a million dollars are there are there norms that that's based on it's based on for many years in setting the rates the town has tried to keep a balance of about a million dollars in both the water and sewer fund partly because once you sort of have a certain balance you don't want to draw it down too much or building it up too much for that matter as a general matter it represents a couple of months of activities so that is kind of a rule of thumb a good number to have so it's a combination of not deviating from the status quo and a general good rule of thumb or the town is not adopting an official policy on water and sewer fund or enterprise fund balances although the finance committee has had some discussions and they do that to future other questions or comments a little harder for me I admit that the select board recommended to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 fyi operating budget water fund in the amount of three million four hundred ninety eight thousand three hundred fifty four dollars second sewer fund sewer fund appropriation recommendation is three million six hundred and fifty two thousand eight hundred and fifty five dollars which is an increase of six point four percent and I would note that this is slightly higher than the number that was in the management recommended budget because when we sold debt in the winter we estimated that the debt for the Harkness Road design would be 20 year debt when we went to actually sell the debt our financial advisor recommended because it was such a small portion of that project that we sell at its 10 year debt so we're actually paying that off quicker so the cost a little bit higher in front and that accounts for the difference between the two budgets I have questions or comments on sewer fund I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 fyi 13 operating budget sewer fund in the amount of three million six hundred fifty two thousand three hundred fifty five dollars second say hi hi recommendation for solid waste is five hundred forty nine thousand eight hundred fifty five dollars which is a zero percent increase so solid waste is a fund with concern this is the this is our the future of the transfer station situation and and so the fund balance here is a worry rate so we're down to fifty three thousand dollars in the solid waste fund balance we're using fifty three thousand it is about half of the current balance thank you what does this look like for the future well as you said and we described in January it's very very tight we have a long term recycling refuse management committee actively looking at the future of the transfer station the future of services at the landfill site there's a citizen survey that is about to go out gauge community interest in recycling needs and other services at the transfer station or whether they continue along the same lines of services there and that'll be a major focus over the coming year to expect this to look much different as a recommendation next year or do you think it's still as part of the future don't know yet one of our landfill sites the old landfill as you all know we're trying to do some development there to get into the renewable energy doesn't this with solar that would generate substantial cost savings to the town conceivably could be partially applied to sustaining or recycling or enhancing or recycling program going forward that's funded out of our solid waste fund which at current trends will require general fund tax support in the near term in the next three years if we keep going same old same old but not this year so we're covered this year any other questions or comments about solid waste but I move that the slick board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 of white 13 operating budget solid waste fund in the amount of five hundred and forty nine thousand eight hundred and fifty five dollars second for the discussion all in favor say aye aye it's unanimous for addition to the transportation fund is nine hundred and eighty four thousand three hundred and eighty three dollars which is an increase of point eight percent and so the transportation fund the transportation fund one of the things that's happening in this fund this year is the bid the money for the bid correct and another thing that's happening in this fund is the we talked last time last meeting about boltwood place what the expected parking situation would be for folks who are going to live there is there any projection in this fund for this year anything about new revenue from parking spaces or anything related to boltwood place in fact the market for those market value of those spaces might go up if there's more demand we expect boltwood place to begin from from the development team at boltwood place they're expecting occupancy by early summer which would mean the parking spaces on the that side of the boltwood lot which are currently closed to the public would be put back into service on or before the start of this fiscal year so we've made the assumption that those spaces would be revenue producing throughout the year in development of this budget in terms of lease spaces I know boltwood place is we'll be leasing a portion of our existing leased spaces so the revenue from those leased spaces in the lower level of boltwood garage is also assumed just might be a different mix of renters, leasers, lesses the revenue from it would remain even other questions about transportation I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 12 fyi 13 operating budget transportation fund in the amount of 984,383 dollars second discussion I okay so then we've got capital but before we do that let's talk about article 30 so petitioner was notified you're pretty sure about that and so he's not here let's talk about it anyway we'll give him the opportunity to come in get us to change our minds or whatever later but since we have two staff folks here who can speak to this article 30 is a petition article that is seeking to have the town invest its money solely in Massachusetts owned banks and also kind of a separate question to ask the legislature to create a bank of Massachusetts for state funds to be invested in or for local municipal funds to be invested in both okay and so we have a memo from treasurer and collector Claire McGinnis about this and also we have some opinion from the finance director about this it's unfortunate that we don't have a petitioner here to speak to it but if folks have read the warrant article then they get a sense of it so really this is in response to the financial crisis the mortgage crisis the things that have been happening with big corporate banks over the last several years and so this is a way to try and kind of put our money where our mouth is quite literally on this issue but the logistics are more complicated than that so it's I can't really represent the petitioner's position on this but you know it's to try and sort of keep your money local and not be supporting the the evils of corporate banking but the local logistical issues are more complicated so I would do folks like to speak a little bit to that Claire put together Claire McGuinness did put together a very nice demo outlining the sections of the general law that define where it has to put their money it's a highly regulated area I will let her answer questions she can maybe just give a two minute overview without going into excruciating detail because as I say it's highly regulated there are clear definitions of where you can and cannot put your money plus Claire can talk to what our practices have been to go above and beyond what the law requires in terms of putting things out to bid and so forth and then you have this in your packet it's a very nice chart that shows where we put our money and how much we can slow it down so Claire do you want to take a minute to just give an overview and then if people have some questions and then we both address all the same aspects sure I don't want to get the information here because you've had it for a few days to read through I would just reiterate that the way the article is written is extremely restrictive and it doesn't define what a Massachusetts bank means it says Massachusetts that's not clear is it located in Massachusetts does it do business only in Massachusetts and what does it mean to do business only to have branches or to reinvest all their capital or it's basically at least I think it's sort of an unsolvable conundrum presented there because we don't have a definition for operating solely in Massachusetts I think it's extremely restrictive and there's a lot to think about when we invest our cash on hand we have to think about how it's ensured what percentage of our asset is in each institution what category of investment device we're using all of those elements are addressed in an investment policy which is in its draft form which Sandy and I have worked on and we'll come to the finance committee so let's select board sometime when you're a little less busy so it's just not as simple as the very nice idea which is let's keep our money local and do good things in the community it's just not that simple and I would just reiterate that it would be extremely disruptive to have to respond to that type of restriction within our current operation I'll just add a couple of things investment for public treasures is safety, liquidity and yield in that order make sure that municipal funds are safe liquid i.e. you can get at them recently quickly when you need them and that they're not tied up for a long period of time and then finally yield in other words what interest rate you're getting on them and the law mandates that that's how Claire invests money she has bonded so that as long as she follows those rules even if she loses money on investment she's protected by the bond if she were to stray from these requirements then she would stray from that bond and she would be vulnerable so we don't want to put her in that position but having said that I think if you look at the back here most of these accounts these are savings accounts are more likely cd's where we keep the bulk of our money the bulk of our money 76% is in institutions that at least are headquartered messages the petition article talks about exclusively messages and frankly we don't know what that means but at least we know the people who have banks out there and as you'll see quite a few of them are local east ends and farms and that's I think for the very practical reason that and you've probably seen this yourself if you're looking to put money in the bank you're going to get a better yield from a local community bank than you are from a big national bank so this is sort of a problem that we don't have in terms of investing in the big national banks because of investments so just naturally we've already there are a couple of accounts which are what we call our business accounts where we process our checks our payroll checks and our vendor checks which aren't necessarily particularly people's banks it's not necessarily a it's a Connecticut bank these banks you have to use a big commercial bank you can't just use a moment of a local bank and over the years the town has followed a policy of going out through a bidding process even though we're not required to do that we have gone out and gotten very favorable very good rates for these banks if you have specific questions Claire can talk about the pay structure but and so then finally I would just conclude by saying from a policy point of view she and I have done a lot of work on an investment policy which we think would round out the finance policies that the town has already adopted it's our intention to present that to the finance committee and have that become a complete part of our finance policies within that would be discussions of obviously obeying the law but also how we would take into consideration where we are investing our money and we think that that is probably the best vehicle for having any kind of policy such as the one that's contemplated in this article and it's my understanding and I will know this more tomorrow night finance that the commissioner is amenable to that sort of solution that having part of this sort of referred back to finance so that it can be taking up within the discussion of our investment policy the other part about the bank it's more in the nature of our resolution and finance is not much of a find on that I don't know where that's going to go but to say that's there's an article in the New York Times Saturday that three weeks ago about the Bank of North Dakota was created in 1909 something rather than this is sort of based on so if you want to see what North Dakota was like when it was a socialist state and read about it bringing its own bank and keeping out out of state bankers and North Dakota back then it actually seems to work pretty well and it's going now I think that's sort of the genesis of some of this idea are there no credit unions on this list simply because they were not as competitive or are there some reasons we're not allowed to use credit unions they're not listed as eligible so we simply can't other questions or comments Mr. Hayden yeah just just I'm wondering you know reading this it's pretty arcane bankers language here chapter 44 section 55 allows this 55B allows that it raised the question it seems to suggest that it's likely it's going to say possible but I think it's more likely that part 1A of the resolution might leave you Claire particularly in a bit of a bind it's possible that we might be requiring you to do something which is not legal or would take special dispensation is that is that a little bit too a reading of this okay that was my first concern oh my goodness if we're going to require you to do something what happens if state law already requires you to not do that that's why I think we've tried to emphasize that this is a highly regulated area it's we don't know for sure what a you know the attorney general would have to opine on this if this did pass time meeting in this present forum to see if it's conformed with current law and that's why I think if we have the option of incorporating these principles we think they're good principles within an investment policy rather than a bylaw that's a much better way to go so that we don't run into a position that we're putting our transfer collector in potential conflict with state law so I think at that point is kind of the key one here that this is spirit behind the petition raises a lot of good issues that make, that encourage us to look at our financial policies we have these financial policy guidelines that the various bodies all signed off on several years ago and in various ways we talk about looking at them and updating them and so this is another way that they should be looked at and updated and that concepts like this are best expressed as a policy rather than a bylaw for all the reasons we've talked about being very restrictive and being potentially illegal, things like that so to go the policy route, especially with a referral back to finance committee or whatever on this, I think would make most sense, Ms. Knight. I was just going to say would it be good to recommend that this be referred back to the finance committee or just let it be not recommend? What's your preference? Would it be my preference to have it go to finance I hope that that's what the petitioner would agree to but we don't have a final word on that we've got some indications that that's a direction which we're heading but I think that in terms of a recommendation to a meeting that brings a lot of sense I think it really is the most thoughtful and comprehensive way to deal with this issue So to refer back to the finance committee for further work so we would so the way we might think about this is supporting that if the motion is made hoping that motion is made to refer back to the finance committee we could also do that referral on ourselves if we prefer to do that I think it makes the most sense to come from the finance committee and or the petitioner I would also add that I think 1A definitely is wrong within the finance committee because that's a finance policy the whole issue of this bank I don't know what the finance committee is going to do on that it's not clear that that resolution would have any financial impact on one way or the other so the finance committee may not take a stand on it because it stands on things like financial impact so I know it's slicing the salami pretty thin here because I think there's a distinction between the different parts of the petitioner So how about to not recommend it as in its current form do we need to parse out another foreman which we recommend is there another foreman which we ever recommend or not recommend those are any of the options can we really do anything but act do we have to act on this as it is presented to us which is to say yes or no that's what I'm asking and then all of those other things that we're talking about there's another observation that would make about part 1A which is different than 2 and 3 or A and B and C is that one is that's what we're doing here we're changing the governance of the town the other two articles are using the authority of town meeting to try to affect state policy it's a different two different animals one is going to affect what we ask you and John to do and the other is going to affect what we ask Stan Rosenberg to do alright so so now that I'm reading this again I remember that so 1A is the whole thing all our money in local banks 1B says to the degree that we're not allowed to do that to ask that legislation be changed so that we'd be allowed to do that and so we're basically saying you know what forget the legislation we just want it to be a financial policy of the town and so we would basically be rejecting both 1A and 1B then part 2 is the thing about forming a bank of Massachusetts for and along the lines of the bank of North Dakota saying that Mr. Poole was talking about and we can take any position on that that we might want to but 1A and 1B are directly related and I think that we're right so I think we're saying that our motion once we get there is going to be to not recommend 1A and 1B and our discussion and we could have a vote by consensus is that should it be should there be a motion to refer back to finance committee to create a more cognitive policy about this that we also support that is that correct it was not okay so do we want to do anything with part 2 which is create this bank of Massachusetts so this just becomes a resolution to ask the state legislature to do something okay it just seems to me and it's unfortunate the petitioner is not here but the town is actively working to create an investment policy there's an expectation that that would come before the finance committee for review and possible adoption of financial policies over the next few months even why would we then we're in the midst of developing an investment policy through a process at the same time endorse potentially a resolution to the legislature to change the state law that relates to our investment practices to me my recommendation to the select board would be to not recommend the article but support a motion to refer the entire article or portions of it to Finca and so if something like part 2 did or did not come out of the future policy discussion by the finance committee then it might proceed in that form or some different form as a resolution to the legislature but at this point that would be it would be too early to do that because we haven't formed the policy yet so I think that makes good sense with Brewery at the end so I guess I'm understanding that then so then I understand my position that I'm not recommending 1A and 1B but then for 2 rather than just saying we have no opinion on this it would be better to say no because it would complicate our lives if we asked for it at this point if it actually happened if we asked for it to actually happen it would complicate our lives associated with developing our own financial policy because we're premature because we're not sure that we would want that we've got to create the policy before we know what sort of outcomes we would want at the local level does that make sense to folks? it was under the misapprehension that the two might be disconnected we could take no position on the second because it has no effect but requiring to take all of our loans from there and we're getting such great rates from where we're getting them I understand that completely now I understand it differently so to summarize we're going to not recommend Article 30 and support referral back to the finance committee if it's moved so can you turn that into a motion? I think so I move at the select board I recommend 2012 meeting article 30 petition article bylaw regarding measures relative to the banking of account funds and to defer development of a financial policy to the finance committee to support referral to support referral to finance it's been moved and seconded for the discussion all in favor say aye thank you for waiting to help us out thank you very much for your helpful memo and for coming in Mr. Cooler you can't move yet because we're still really careful okay anybody like to speak to article 30 in our position they're on no that was no I'll do that the reason I'm not speaking up to do it is I realize that for JCPC I'm doing more than I have realized I'm doing and I have to find out a little bit more about what that involves before I commit to it okay so then now capital so we have the JCPC report was in our first town meeting mailing and we have two members of JCPC here with us and rather than going line by line through all of us we have to sort of hit the highlights of whatever alright there are articles 15 16 17 and 18 are all related to JCPC and capital 15 specifies the amount in the JCPC report they spend it in chapter 90 hybrid funds which is $500,000 article 16 is our capital expenditure from general fund capital funds which is $1,213 $108 and again within the JCPC report there are several sources of funds but it could be borrowing it could be grants and so forth $1,213,804 is what is related to directly to taxation and then similarly for buildings and facilities it's a total of $368,396 which again is the taxation portion of those items the sorry JCPC met several times oh and then we have debt authorization there are four major capital items under debt the tree planting program at $612,000 a major standard truck working for W at $150,000 new radio police department at $125,000 it refers to the central station fire headquarters at $184,000 I have to say a word about the JCPC process we started the process this year with over a million dollars more in requests for FY 13 than we had available resources we were spending 6.5% of the tax levy on on capital which is the same amount we spent in FY 12 eventually the town policy says we should be up to 10% of the levy and I hope in the next year or two we can start to move in that direction we'll make recommendations about that in the fall but the JCPC report was recommended by a vote of 6-0 there was a minority report from Carol Gray who had been on the JCPC up until about a couple weeks ago and she submitted a minority report but otherwise the committee supported all these recommendations and I thought it was a great product of the process I'd be happy to go into any further detail in the hour we'll go on a fire line fire line item so I think the most important thing to know about JCPC for folks working at home joint capital planning committee is made up of representatives from select board finance committee library and school committee library trustees and school committee and it is one of our very true and robust processes for coming up with these recommendations and like all parts of the budget it has vast amounts of priorities and needs that can't be funded this year because we simply don't have the money Ms. Stein and Mr. Wald are our representatives to joint capital planning committee and we either would be like to speak to anything special that you're particularly happy is finally getting funded anything else we should know about the process or the recommendations Ms. Stein? Well let's see I think perhaps getting the funding for the door said 12 minutes and 4th River School has a bus about that last year getting some repairs to the Hitchcock center which is just where we need it getting the generally of the town hall so that we will have an emergency command center if that can run computers etc in the event we ever have a similar one as like all of the storm that has to I think those are the ones that while getting the on for the tree to try to restore our community these trees I think is a really important one the fire equipment the radios that's mandated by federal government we don't have a choice those are the ones that took to my mind what about you Jim? I guess in general I'd rather talk about the process of the whole because as the chair said it's really very important committee which has wide representation that's the thing about too when we decide and sit on the board that had committees that sent people there library trustees and finance and select board and we were multiple hats but I guess the thing I like most this year is the degree of cooperation because sometimes an individual budget unit what do you want to call it entity will make a proposal not aware that something is already in the budget or there's a better way to do it so for example there are several cases where there's communication between one unit and someone in another unit and we have to save money that way or for example what looks like a priority in a certain case can be deferred and so if the fire chief says the whole process you know it's not just a question of suffering the money around but really the larger issues are being taken into account at every step another case where the town two different aspects of it worked well together was the library wanted cameras for security they put in a $60,000 request if I remember right a crisp goodness could provide the same level of security only $20,000 so that was a win-win situation in terms of saving a big chunk of change and also providing the security need that was definitely important if those of you with good communication are bad depending on how you look at it same with fire there were specific proposals for certain things and the fire chief could say this is okay and this isn't okay and so forth and you find out communication is interesting because it's actually and the fact that this library was tied in means that they got actually more service to us safely good process on I had a question for my two colleagues sort of a general question as I look through this list without the spreadsheet that we'll be seeing later in front of me I'm just recalling that most of these items clearly not the narrow band radios because that was that was a mandate that happened just at the beginning of the year but all of the other stuff are a lot of the other stuff I recognize from years out there's not a lot of surprises that line is moving forward we're going to pick up the dump truck for instance there's no flying equipment which I do remember and the cruisers and all of that stuff there are a few surprises here this is really the plan and we're sticking with it, yes? I think that's true this year was the terrible shape the central fire station was in maybe it was there last year but the whole idea that they're sneaking through the building that the floor which is the ceiling of the basement could fall in from the weight of the fire trucks and this compelling need just hit me between the eyes this year and that's $125,000 that was kind of the stuff as aware of last year if I was aware of it at all so things do come right, of course move to a very high priority that you may not have recognized a year before it was such a great pain it's a good process to get the stuff in the pipeline but still remain flexible as it was strange and that item about the floor is going to segue beautifully new modern version will enhance the connectivity in our public spaces and cafes et cetera in our downtown to make it that much more attractive and told that the reception will be better than it ever has and that investment is made and I can't let an opportunity pass when talking about capital and the article part of article 18 on debt authorization $612,000 for a tree replacement program expect to plant a minimum of 2,000 trees over the next three years we looked at national models for such a program Ann Arbor, Michigan and others have undertaken very ambitious tree planting and stewardship programs we brought in Alan Snow certified arborist to head our parks and grounds the division of the DPW he will be running the show in specifics of this and we're tremendously excited it's not just about the money for the trees there's a whole comprehensive program at the proper species at the proper locations and have a care plan we'll try to maximize the number of trees that survive and there's partnerships with the Stockbridge School at UMass, et cetera we think that will strengthen our ability to leverage grants and other private fund rates to build an autonomous program in 5, 10 years from now people are going to really notice the difference when they drive around there beautiful town is taking all these strides on reducing pollution so we can't wait to get started and so those are two that you noted that I'm very excited about also those are capital items to really be proud of we're not just maintaining and investing in the things that we need to keep going but the tree investment really speaks to our values as a community and the Wi-Fi, that's something that I'm just very proud to have Amherst offer you know, you go to most communities and that's not kind of a regular service of the downtown, that's something that serves folks who might not have internet access at home, it helps support our community as a an educational community where education is our industry and it makes it something that's really kind of mobile and everywhere so I just think those are tremendous and I think that's JCPC for recommending them and thanks to Ms. Stein and Mr. Walth for all of their excellent participation throughout this process and keeping us informed every week about kind of where things were I served on JCPC a few years ago and it really is a very, very impressive process and it takes a lot of homework and a lot of good input and feedback from everyone who's participating so thank you both very much Mr. Walth extending the meeting I want to just give you an example about the trees also, another thing is that Mr. Snow is able to save a lot of money you can put in the trees for less money with maintenance than DCR without maintenance so great savings there and again, you know, Amherst is made up of lots of very dedicated, inquisitive creative people so we always have five solutions and 10 questions for every issue that comes before us and a lot of the conversations there as elsewhere are, what about this I'm just curious, couldn't we live this way in that way and so you have to know and so one of the things I was most impressed with was the professionals and with the town staff and the expertise, I guess we'd call it of the town citizen volunteers, you know Mr. Poehler, Mr. Muzanti, Mr. Moran from the Finance Committee, Chief Nelson, Chief Livingston so if you say our favorite question why can't we get a hybrid for this you know, they won't tell you why you can't the electrical system, the carrying capacity the driving range, because they do this in Colorado and it's down in New York, you know all of these people, same with the fire equipment whether it's before the firefighters they have the information of their fingertips and they can give you a precise and authoritative answer and that makes it an educational as well as an efficient process. Thank you. I won't even apologize for extending the meeting because I still have questions. Again, thanks to serving on JCPC, I for two of those of you who are doing that because it is complicated, I appreciate that everyone works together on that when I served on JCPC when I was on the school committee we went through a transition and I was the general manager who was the deputy finance director where we made things much more straight forward in terms of objective looking at what the various priorities are which is so well explained here in the JCPC text so this process just keeps getting better in terms of questions that I have probably already arisen arisen, yeah, arisen at your meetings or that are coming up around town so that we're prepared for them in terms of the three-year tree replacement program after three years is there a particular figure in mind for what might be considered maintenance just like we try and build in a little bit, you know, for the schools it was asbestos in the $10,000 year when we find some trucks we try and look at a certain period of time do we have any idea what that's looking like? I think the answer to that is not yet but there will be but the plan we're going to learn, you know, I think it's a well thought out plan but we're going to learn a lot in the course of implementing this ambitious program and one of the things we'll learn is what's a responsible minimum commitment level in years four plus I think one of the things we're thinking about is trees within the public way could be on pound land or could be on private property and getting people to have a sort of adopt a tree program and you can take care of those trees in the first couple of years and make sure they're watered properly and so forth so they really have a chance to grow in those first two years or three years I think we're going to learn a lot about how successful that's going to be in terms of sustaining them but trying to work very cooperatively with homeowners on that that's great for the people who say wow $612,000 toward trees he's putting that money on people what's beyond the fact that everything's in a larger context how do we explain that at the most basic level I mean beyond my personal understanding of the capital plan and the fact that we have so many unmet capital this isn't my short answer hopefully it's short is this is an investment that will pay dividends over the next 50 to 75 years and this is an attempt to be bold and do something meaningful to reverse really what is a 30 year decline in the number and health of our public street trees so I think we're also able to accommodate that within our capital budget planning in part because of the one of the many strengths cited in our bond rating report was the relatively low debt burden and the fact that whatever debt we do have is scheduled to be paid off rapidly that puts us in a position to be able to entertain proposals for issuing new debt without overly burdening overly burdening the budget I think this fits into that category and it's borrowing borrowing to pay operating expenses is not a good plan I think I looked at my figures here to remind myself and I was correct so Mr. Snow's plan is saving us $30 a tree times 2000 trees so we're now for that to begin with again with maintenance for the beginning and out the rest and the way he put it also is he distinguished between so-called gray infrastructure like asphalt and cement and green and so this only kind of gives back and it gives back at a rate of about 3 to 1 and if you want the figures you know 100 trees take out 53 tons of carbon dioxide 430 pounds of other pollutants they improve the quality of life they make people want to spend more time walking downtown they may be shopping and spending money downtown they reduce even if you've been clinging to this crime they for so I think as a large tangible as well as intangible payback in terms of quality of life that we have to think about and then non-tree related we of course only saw tonight and only if we pulled it out of our packets Ms. Gray, one of JCPC members Minority Report which is largely a complaint about Duke studies and I just wanted to check with the town manager in terms of historically beyond the fact that we're looking at gathering some information up on this which is great is has JCPC typically I mean all the years I was on JCPC we were doing studies and I know that you know people said that's not a building or a facility this is not a new question I mean we have we've been looking at doing studies because we expected to pay off over the long run through this capital plan I mean that's traditionally true we've been doing this for a long time this is not a clever way of doing this that's right and JCPC has recommended study money for the gateway gateway zoning which may lead to future public investment in that district as well as private investment and that's the basis upon which occasionally studies are recommended through the capital process unlike it does for all spending requests that come before it should you know vote to support or not support based on their collective judgment of the merits of the spending proposal in front of them anything else on the capital articles not anyway do you like to make a move? sure you can do it really fast I noticed that the switch were recommended to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 15 that's chapter 90 in the amount of $500,000 second discussion, a little favor to say aye aye I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 16 capital program of commitment in the amount of $1,203,804 second discussion, a little favor to say aye aye I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 17 capital program buildings and facilities in the amount of $363,396 second discussion, a little favor to say aye aye I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 18 capital program debt authorization in the amount of $1,071,000 second second discussion, a little favor to say aye aye so we're actually going to pause here because we need to talk about article 19 and article 20 so Mr. Pool we've got explanation on those article 19 is a debt precision it's two times in the past town meeting authorized borrowing for purchasing of modular classrooms for the marksmen of the school and 2007 and 2008 the total of those authorizations was $300,000 when the town finally borrowed money to purchase those it issued bond anticipation notes of $220,000 and there was $80,000 of unused capacity which we are never going to use because we bought the modules and so we would like to take that $80,000 of excess bond authorization off of our books the term for that is to rescind that and so that's what we're asking you to do so to be clear that's not $80,000 that's not there that is then going to be repurposed anyplace else that was authorization to borrow but we did not borrow it so it's just it's capacity for borrowing it's not real dollars this is like cutting up a credit card that you never use perfect example thank you I just think that's really important for people to understand because surely there's going to be comments about that exactly and along those lines although it doesn't fit as nicely we can't repurpose that allowance so to speak in order to reinstall them some more else because that's not what the authorization was holding the authorization was to borrow or get them and install them the first time so that's why we don't just like hang on to it and use it for something else it needs to just we're done with that project with that alright other questions about article 19 this time I move that the select or recommend to the April 30th 2012 I know will tell me article 19 capital program debt precision in the amount of 80,000 dollars second discussion no favor say aye aye that's unanimous and article 20 but up to 220,000 that we borrowed and spent all the money and so forth there was 6,261 dollars and 96 cents left over it's just sitting there and bond council and our financial advisors have recommended that we repurpose those funds for another purpose that is allowable under the the general laws for borrowing so another purpose for which you could borrow chapter 44 section chapter 20 says that you can repurpose one borrowing for another when you have excess funds and the reason that we want to do this now is that we want to again get it off our books so that we don't run into the three year timeline in which you have to spend money in other words you have to spend one or band proceeds in this case within three years of your initial borrowing that three year period will be up this coming June 2012 so you have to find a project that is bondable and that you've already spent the money on and that project in this case is the replacement of the sidewalks at the banks community center which is a project that happened last summer all the expenditures have gone through there so this is essentially an accounting move to say that of the total expenditures for that project $6,261.96 will come from prior bond band proceeds which will then free up that same amount of money which will then become free cash yes okay I have two questions did you say bond or band I said band band is a bond anticipation note okay when you let's say you were to issue a ten year authorize a ten year bond you can do bands which are one year notes for up to three years but you have to either spend that money you have to spend all that money within the three years so that's okay so band was what I was hearing and the second thing was what was the total cost of the banks sidewalks this is covered what portion is paid for all of it this $6,200 is covering I'm going to guess 10% it's a fraction it's a fraction okay so again to clarify I circled the words excess borrowing capacity in article 19 and article 20 was we actually got the dollars and they were made out of spend and that's why we need to repurpose it because otherwise we just lose them and we're allowed to use it for very specific purposes right not to complicate it more but it really ultimately all comes into play with our arbitrage rules ooh another word I don't know the federal government has rules for how how long you can sit on money that you borrowed on a tax exempt basis and what they don't want you to do is borrow money on a tax exempt basis and then invest it in one of these bank accounts we talked about before whether or domestic and earn higher interest that's called arbitrage and that's the sort of form of tax fraud we don't do tax fraud I think I'd like to vote for this yeah I think are we done with questions or comments or can article 20 I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 20 capital program debt repurposed in the amount of $6,261 and 96 cents because we don't want that second for the discussion today we're saying aye okay so now we gotta just go back in time so articles 15 through 19 are the regular jcpc articles right and 15 through 18 I'm sorry 18 that's what I meant 15 through 18 and I definitely want buildings and facilities because I'm doing it for jcpc and what would you like for your number one and then I'm going to miss Tim and I guess we have to choose from 19 I mean whatever basically we're affirming what the other reports say anyways mostly I think that's true for 15 through 18 that it should definitely be our jcpc reps okay so that's why I'm saying I'll take 17 and whatever whatever else I'll be happy with 90 I can do 19 and 20 for that matter so I can do that alright so I'll do 15 and 17 okay so you'll do 15 and 17 and then Mr. Wild will do 16 and 18 okay and Miss Brewer will do 19 and 20 okay so 19 and 20 just so that we're clear these are actually select board articles they're not finance committee articles so you get to make of course deferring I'll be over I got five seconds and you get the rest of the time okay yeah I just wanted to acknowledge publicly again Sandy Cooler's outstanding work all things budget operating in capital all the other way too many special projects that I throw this way so we're very fortunate to have these doing great work for the town really is this has long been in the area not long I should say it has long been in the area of great strength in Amherst and particularly coming from Mississippi we probably start by regarding me I'm our town manager it's been just a seamless transition so it's really been a tremendous part of the team thank you very much thank you for spending all these hours with us this evening and we'll see you again on Monday if you're sick of us yet thank you for all of your information tonight and thank you for coming back for Monday and are we done with this term tonight because we are okay we're well behind schedule but this is to be predicted during town meetings we're exactly one hour behind which brings us down to the town manager's report this is all largely carried over from last week very quickly goods and services procurement training for town staff I wanted to commend the work of our comptroller Sonny Aldrich and assistant comptroller Holly Bowser they led a training workshop with the departmental staff in attendance really working in coordination with the state inspector general's guidelines about public procurement laws and procedures best practices had a whole set of examples with Amherst specific forms and procedures and was well received and I wanted to acknowledge their good work secondly we have recently implemented and this is all inside baseball but it's a we're trying to be a greener community we've gone paperless I know you're excited about this paperless with our personnel requisition process I would get writer's cramp and some of these personnel requisitions that's gone electronic team effort with IT and human resources and our departmental staff we're able to process you know payroll changes electronically without piles of paper and that's what I think is a sneak preview it's a major focus of ours going forward we are actively looking at things like electronic billing which there's a lot of complications to that including Massachusetts state law what we can and cannot do but we're actively looking at that trying to build on our platform that we have with our online online billing we had some recent enhancements that are now live on our online bill pay you can get all of your unpaid bills all in one place at one time as opposed to going program area by program area on the town website you can have it bundled together into one place at UC and hopefully take action so we're excited about that next I wanted to mention spring is here mention some planning that's going on we've had a really excellent meeting recently early April on campus with a number of university officials from UMass police, dean of students external relations campus and community coalition partners we had a number of town officials there Stephanie joined us we had public safety represented we also had representation at this meeting from a number of our prominent larger area landlords property renters talking about planning for how to keep the community safe during the spring season a lot of messaging going on from the university to students and parents of students about expectations for safe celebrations etc in the springtime it was a good meeting of information sharing about our plans and the renewal I think of good dialogue with the landlord community about how they can partner with us a safe and healthy neighborhood initiative in terms of public safety specifically we had a very busy weekend this past weekend on the police side we had a high number of calls for service 330 we ended up with about 71 arrests which was a high number areas of greatest concern were in the North Amherst area townhouse meadow street lower main street we did have some arrests in those locations and some citations for noise by-law nuisance house by-law violations we also have a state alcohol abuse prevention grant for enforcement police were assigned on this grant in the fearing street philip street area enforcing open container related issues we've also had officers spending time in advance of some of the weekends going door to door particularly in some of the rental properties distributing information about expectations for the spraying and so that's going on our next two weekends we've been gearing up to be likely to be our busiest we'll have most of our department police department on duty the next two weekends in advance of finals and commencement exercises at the various colleges we'll also be receiving some support from the state police and alcohol enforcement we had a very incredibly beautiful weather on Monday it was a gorgeous day and we had a large number of people primarily young people take that opportunity to gather at puffers pond which in and of itself is a wonderful resource we did have problems however a number of them did have alcohol and left behind quite frankly a giant mess through the efforts of a number of neighborhood volunteers some initial cleanup in town crew spending all day Tuesday cleaning up the mess puffers pond I share the outrage and frustration that many members of the community feel about what happened and we will do our best going forward to try to manage those perspective situations as best we can the fact that it was this early in the spring was a bit of a surprise and it's just a basic set of expectations we can have all these fancy regulations and all kinds of enforcement but you know what we have a pretty basic law in this community in most communities about no open containers that needs to be observed and when people go into a town park or a national park or the beach you should be expected to haul out what you haul in and not leave behind a mess so we're trying to communicate those expectation levels and the vast majority of the time those are observed but we have these cases such as Monday when they're not it's an ongoing effort to try to prevent those going forward recent and upcoming activity joined many of you at the Survival Center Groundbreaking ceremony last Friday on Sunderland Road in North Amherst a wonderful event from all parts of the community were there it was really a day that we were reminded of the needs that are being met through the services of the Survival Center and looking forward to having a new building open up right around the first of the year next January everything I have questions or comments if we could talk a little more about Puppers Pond and not Tropic to clarify and there might even be a sign there although I haven't been in a while so just like other parks in town no alcohol is in fact allowed at Puppers Pond to begin with that's nothing new secondly this whole idea of hauling in and hauling out while some people are more familiar with it than others clearly this party was just beyond that concept so have we considered we do want to encourage people to take the trash with them have we considered installing some more trash and recycle container receptacles we know that that would not have caused people to not have left this mess but in terms of in general we tend to be a little stingy with our trash barrels both on the common and in our parks so could we have somebody think about whether or not it's worth installing a couple of machines we are exploring that as one of the many of this particular event because we have like I said on the common etc we often seem to have a little bit of shortage of trash cans and the other comment was associated with open container is it correct to assume that if the police had not been so busy trying to keep people safe while they were at Puppers Pond and offered the private property that surrounds Puppers Pond that in fact they could have made far more open container arrests because there was just a plethora with open containers, but it's not like it was really reasonable to put this back to a restaurant. That's exactly right. I'll just emphasize that the things that we talk about here at Select Board meetings just barely scratch the surface of the stuff that is being dealt with on all of these issues this is the third meeting that I've talked about Puffers Pond in today, Mr. Moussanti Mr. Moussanti has been in multiple multiple conversations about this there is so much effort being directed at the kind of off-campus issues that are the challenges of being a magnificent college town that Mr. Moussanti talked about the spring coordination meeting, we could talk about that for two hours the stuff that came out of that and the meetings that we haven't even talked about you know we have a meeting with the bar owners from the Pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration that I think we haven't even mentioned yet, so much town resources is being devoted to this stuff, so I just want folks to know that you know whatever you hear hear and you sort of think oh like they're paying that much attention to it you don't have a clue how much attention is being paid to this stuff it's an extreme effort of the town working together with the University to try and discourage and otherwise solve these problems so it is a challenge the partnership with the University is just getting better and better the communication from that meeting Mr. Moussanti talked about about the spring coordination great stuff came out of that meeting and I love being at meetings that things really have been at and so just as an example Officer Pronovos, Captain Pronovos Police Department talked about specific bylaws that Mr. Moussanti referenced going door to door bringing this information to different rental properties so they've got both an 8.5 by 11 printout and they've got these door hangers at that meeting the landlords property managers and folks from Dina's students office all wanted that information so that they could also put out that same information to on campus students and to the landlords and the Dina's students and everyone could be reinforcing each other's messages so really the communication and coordination on all these different things that's just an example it's really intense and I think it's really working we can't see what we don't see we can't see what's not happening we don't know what is being prevented or what is less bad because of our efforts at the same time the efforts have never been better coordinated and are extremely strong and being reinforced and very focused and so I think everybody's feeling really good about it at the same time but the challenges are ongoing we're never going to solve these problems the best we can do is work together and try and address the best we can but I just want the community to know how very much effort is being put into these issues and what a high priority they are I appreciate you saying that and having you do report to the Community Coalition town manager often reports but I think it is really worthwhile to continue to remind us of some of those details and those examples because that had not always been the case years ago and so it really is a much improved relationship with the university everybody really working together and it's been really wonderful to see on so many fronts so many people sharing the same ideas and not just paying lip service but actually saying we can make a difference in how things work it's really bringing together people who all are acknowledging that there's a problem and it's not pointing fingers at folks it's saying okay what do we all bring to bear on a solution here and really working together to try and do that it's been very gratifying even though it continues to be frustrating when new issues pop up Poffers Pond how do you predict something like that when the police department was fully staffed for the whole weekend and extremely busy well now this is Monday in the middle of the day you know and you just don't know so it's a challenge I'm really proud of the work of the town and the university are doing together on this stuff I'll shut up now okay other questions are coming in let's get later stuff okay okay so other member reports you see a deep question in the comments okay member reports BCG I think we've got the summary points in your packet we essentially dealt with that when we talked about the recommendation on the unfunded list the FY13 budget discussion that got a couple hours ago so BCG the only thing we didn't touch on which I started to reference in that discussion but then we didn't talk about it was the fact that we have since then learned that the house is recommending that 65 million dollars that we've talked about multiple times in this meeting that the MMA has been advocating for that we put together a letter advocating for that if the additional revenue was expected to be available at the state level to make the appropriations part of the cherry sheet initial based appropriations to cities and towns rather than making an additional appropriation in the fall as they did last year the house is recommending that that happened and so the implications of having more state aid than we were originally planning for it is now a higher a higher likelihood of reality than it had been previously BCG has not dealt with this yet BCG is probably going to meet in advance of town meeting to talk about a policy on this whatever not a policy a recommendation whatever came out of that I mean not to get in front of BCG but I expect that it will be quite like last year that you don't spend that money because it still is very unpredictable money and if there were going to be any recommendations for spending it in any way that would come in the fall wouldn't be for the spring but just so folks know that that state aid situation is a little bit improved since BCG and since our last select word meeting anything else on that I would just mention quickly just to feel a little bit of Debbie down on that that is of course the house budget at this point there is much more to come in terms of wrangling and although we're very pleased with that advocates for many other aspects of the budget are extremely upset with the budget so it's certainly possible that some other needs will begin a priority over that 65 million so I think it's very brilliant of us to not race around trying to find ways to spend it because it is an overtill that's an excellent point to make and just so folks know that 65 million translates to about half a million dollars for the town of Amherst alright so that BCG JCPC anything beyond that actually I'd like to mention a couple of things that we didn't get to fund which sort of killed me because they would save the town money for example insulating two of the libraries and they had studies done that show we could pay it back over a relatively small number of years so it feels we're not to be able to do that especially as we're being in the green community the same with toilet parks that would make feeding more efficient and then Ms. Moran the chair mentioned getting video cameras for police cars because you would like to be able to document that in a responsible manner and that the students don't sometimes or other students I shouldn't think about that so I think sometimes we forget the pain of what we can supply capital for so that's all I want to say for JCPC well since we're on the topic I mean that's an example but there were cases also where plans were put forward and other people who knew more such as the police other fire chief would say this is not necessary or it's not necessary now so for example the insulation was not it's not that it's not a good idea but the proposal was to fund the insulation by taking the money out of the money was set aside it would have rated what was left over for the future which was Mr. Rosanti, Mr. Poole had a long discussion about how much money to set aside for the future so there was no place to take that without taking from someplace else and if you turn to page 21 of your budget book that the library tax support increased 6.68% over FY 11 and it's now funded 75% out of the town budget so you know I just mean that it's a green goal sure but it's a not a priority I'm just saying that we all have lots of needs we can't satisfy and so every individual unit establishes priorities that's kind of the theme of this whole meeting I think is the things that at least we can fund this much of operating in capital and human services etc and yet there is still so much other stuff that we can't be funding okay other liaison or representative reports well we never got to talk about them last time so let's go back a while we'll go through them fast well we attended the lamp lighter awards where you spoke and I thought it was very well done this year on the next day there was the personnel board met with staff which is an annual event where staff gets to speak about their concerns and that was interesting they seemed happy with the two people and less happy if I gathered what the initial speaker was saying about the time that was chosen for the meeting but let's see then on that evening I visited the shelter and I would like to say a few words about that because it was really extraordinarily interesting I think that it was well worth the visit it appears very well run there seems to be an overflow of people the shelter seems to be able to manage to feed everybody even the overflow it was especially happy night because one of the previously homeless persons had actually gotten housing and was going to be able to move out of needing the shelter so to celebrate the event they had pizza they had a homemade cabbage salad they had brownies they had coffee tea other beverages it seemed very warm I was amazed that they serve all this food on china plates and dishes and glasses and that volunteers from Amherst College were at the same washing and drying and putting back things it was really an amazing impression and experience let's see we attended Stan's Municipal Conference on Saturday, March 31st and I thought what happened there was worth reporting first that T. Kaufman who is representative from Lexington talked about their goal to improve their experience by putting all the money that they take in online and all the expenditures online so that's going to be a first and also that they want to look at the tax credits that the state has given and to see if the credits given and what it cost the state to do so and what you can see is that it's been a tremendous tremendous remnant because they've never been able to or never have tracked that before and that seems like extremely worthwhile to do and then I think you didn't mention but it was very nice reception for the new Code Enforcer so that's all I have to say I want to mention one item but I also want to ask the town manager or any one of us who is also at the municipal conference what the term is for that we call tax loopholes but what's the technical term for those things that we don't tax that we've said they use the word credits and exemptions it's called the tax expenditure budget everything that's a credit, a deferral an exemption is all part of the tax expenditure budget what was really striking to me was that I don't really hold numbers in my head that well so if this is wrong I apologize but I believe that we have $24 billion in tax expenditures and $22 billion in tax revenue that we collect so our tax policies are to forego more in tax revenue than it is to collect now most of that is low income stuff like the earned income tax credit is that a federal one we've got a state something new that and clothing from sales tax but he was one of the things he was saying was like the film industry got all kinds of credits to come to the state that makes it economical for them to make a film here but do we get a payback on that and that's what they're going to be taking a very close look on so that report is due April 30th it's going to be on the state's website it's going to be really fascinating so the question is going to be how to look at everything fresh there aren't going to be any recommendations attached to the report is what he was saying to us because that was beyond their charge but he's expecting that over the next couple of years they'll be looking at them seeing if the policy goals that were associated with each of those tax credits whether it be you know non-profits don't pay property taxes for this one example whether the policy goals are still being met to the extent that is justified by the money that's being foregone there or if that money could be better spent so Ms. Stein's example of tax credits to the film industry or life sciences industry they're going to really go through the ones that are potentially discretionary over the next couple of years and see if there's some ground that can be made up it really was fascinating and I look forward to that report on the 30th Yes, thank you for elaborating on that for bringing it up this time because that was really amazing and I just didn't bring my notes in with me and so I forgot the name of it and it also seems like they're really trying hard to quantify reality as opposed to it being anecdotally based so whenever people make comments about the airline industry and the fact that you don't have to pay sales tax on the parts for repairing your airplane if you can afford a private plane you can afford a paid tax on the parts but then people say oh but then they'll go to Connecticut or New Hampshire instead and see what happened when we did that and then it just kind of just this constant circle and it never really goes anywhere so they're trying to really outline what it really means in terms of dollars so that again we can look at it from a policy standpoint so at least have the dollars first the other item I just wanted to mention in addition to all the wonderful things that we volunteered to speak to this when it was at a different time but this is in our packets so it's online as well Mass Perg has a project where they are doing 100 what you feel about that and they can feel free to break some ground on that and maybe somebody will have done that but otherwise I would plan we'd work on it over the summer look at it for the fall so that we would be prepared to deal with it well before the end of the fiscal year of various committee meetings but it's just not happening right now so we had created a self self created deadline of or goal not a deadline but a goal of getting this done by the end of the fiscal year life happens and that just does not prove to be practical so I think it's a very good idea to put this off until the fall and give it more attention over the summer and Miss Perg's point about and it isn't the most critical issue facing us at the moment folks can expect more information about that over the summer and in the fall alright chair the report Miss Perg the only other thing I was going to mention although it doesn't exactly fall under this is you might have noticed we haven't been doing a lot of appointments well it's getting to be that season again and Miss Stein and I are gearing up for that as we're working on all these time meeting things because it's nice how it all fits together that way or not so I said at the next meeting next Monday we do expect to be able to we finally believe we have in the last CAF forms to appoint the housing and shelter committee so we're really looking forward to that being able to get a start so we're hoping to bring that before you on Monday great alright anything else under member report chair the report um I go to lots and lots of meetings on our behalf and if you want to know more about them talk to me I spoke at the warrant review just doing a select words part of warrant review we've got a meeting later this week with Ellen story she does this periodic meeting bringing folks together on economic development if she's really just kind of sharing information bringing folks together so they can share information from the town and the different colleges and university sides about what's going on so that's later this week tomorrow is the motion review meeting for town meeting that's a couple hours with the moderator and town council and everybody just this is all the prep work that goes into the logistics meeting one thing I had reported on a couple select board meetings ago was part of this whole campus and community coalition thing was that I was going to be writing a letter to the daily collegian and a select board knows that I did that and they did publish that about a couple weeks anybody's paying attention at home that did happen and something that I mentioned a while ago is that I invited to speak at the applewood lunch on saturday april 28th so that's coming up I hope we can have and so I'll be doing that also I think that's all I have to report I assume it would come up when we came to the individual articles but did anything exciting come out of the warrant review previously I know that usually a lot of questions don't get asked it's such a limited amount of time it does so did anything really significant come out of there not that I remember I do encourage folks to watch it because again this is something we get so close to that we sort of forget how everybody else views it but it is on rebricast on actv the website it is a great overview of every one of the articles so it is very helpful especially for town meeting members to prepare and the other thing I was going to say about that was no I can't remember somebody mentioned to me that it seemed early this year and so it it'll be interesting I've kind of made some notes for next year to it's just another part of all of these things that we juggle when we're trying to determine the times for things and obviously TMCC determines the time for the warrant review but there are all these factors that all influence each other I tend to put together the calendar with recommended dates for when we set town meeting when we set the town elections you sort of forget about all the other things that go along with that even though we have our rule of thumb for trying to have the warrant signed for so that TMCC can fit in all but I was even thinking about the mailings this time and thinking when they would go out in relation to when we signed the warrant the town meeting warrant completely forgetting that in fact you can't send it out too early because that's before the town election when we don't even know who the town meeting members are especially this year when every single town meeting member was out so it's really a complicated process to make all this stuff work together but the timing of the warrant review I've just got sort of a note to look at that next year and in case TMCC needs any feedback along the way I'll just remind folks that we will at our select board meeting after town meeting have kind of our wrap up again of the process as we always do so if you have any thoughts along the way just make a note to yourself so that we can add those because then we send that feedback out to whoever is appropriate to receive it alright anything else did we do all of our untimed items again good so anybody else notice anything I checked it all along we didn't have any appointments we didn't have any taxes no but we had with the licenses and we did we did those okay we did those the only thing I should have mentioned associated with the member reports is last week I did to the RSDPC the Andy Steinberg Catherine the illness of Brewer where we're looking at regionalization and possibility of joining the other towns between regionalization and the board we did do public forum the first of two that were required to focus on Amherst specific issues last Wednesday night it was not well attended although the people that did come did participate went well over TV and we'll be putting a link on the web page for that and we're looking at having a guest speaker to do a meeting in May which yes we have town meeting but it will be on Thursday night more than likely in May to do the second forum because we want to not get out of sync with the other towns as they continue to move forward in their discussions so we have also been meeting with them informally to listen to guest speakers and we'll probably have another one next week so you can follow all that on your STPC website and how much you know exciting comes up, it will be under there will be a report by Catherine who is sharing that and also happening which is at the school committee now under article one at town meeting which brings us to upcoming things just looking at the calendar preview we meet again in five days as we know that is our last pre-town meeting we will be meeting on April 30th at the middle school next on Monday night we'll talk about our expectations for meetings during town meeting on the calendar preview it says for the 30th oh no that's right FY12 third quarter budget update that had originally been scheduled for the 23rd it's now going to be the 30th and I don't think I have anything else to add to the upcoming calendar preview something that's happening in the next five days so is there anything else we need to say before Mr. Hayden makes his most welcome motion I would then move to adjourn then without objection the second adjourns at ten ten thank you very much that's round number