 Okay, we have a quorum. It's not the full complement of the committee, but I think it's appropriate to begin the meeting. So I call the meeting to order. And we'll begin by reading the script for remotely conducted open meetings. Allow me to introduce myself, Charlie Foskett, chair of the finance committee. This open meeting of the finance committee is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12th, 2020, due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to COVID-19 virus. In order to mitigate the transmission of the virus, we've been advised and directed to suspend public gatherings. And as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in publicly accessible physical locations. Further, all members of the public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. The order which you can find posted with the agenda materials for this meeting allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. This meeting will feature public comment only in writing by email to tbradleyatown.arlington.ma.us.com. And let me interject at this point that we have had a number of communications in writing so there will be public comment. For this meeting, the finance committee is convening by Zoom app as posted on the town's website identifying how the public may join in comment. Please note that the meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to screen share the computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. All supporting materials that have been provided members of this body are available on the town's website unless otherwise noted. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless the chair notes otherwise. Allow me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes. The chair will introduce each speaker on the agenda and after they conclude their remarks the chair will invite members to make any comments or questions, motions or debate. Please hold until you recognize your name is called. Let me make my normal comment at this point that I delegate to Annie LaCourt or Tara Bradley the right to interrupt me if I don't see a hand raised because of the limitations of my screen size on the computer. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until the chair yields floor to you and state your name before speaking. If you wish to engage in colloquially with other members please do so through the chair taking care to identify yourself. Finally, let me note that each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. So allow me please to confirm that all the members and the persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. So members, when I call your name please respond in the affirmative. That's your present. Grant Gibbian. Present. Shane Glendale. Here. John Ellis. Makaya Healy. Brian Beck. Reeve Padaria. Sophie Migliazo. He is here, Charlie. It looks like she's on mute. I got it, Torg. Thank you, here. Jonathan Wallach. Here. Shailene Pocrus. Here. Tharo Harmer. Here. Andy LaCorte. Alan Jones. Here. George Koser. Here. Bill Keller. Here. Alan Tossi. Here. Wanda Nascimento. Here. Christine Deschler. Here. Dean Carmen. Here. David McKenna. Here. Thank you. Tamara Bradley. Here and Annie LaCorte just joined. Thank you. So, Annie, you're a designated hitter on the recognition of raised hands. Got it. John Ellis just joined as well. So, we have minutes for approval for the ninth and the 14th. So the ninths were approved in our last meeting and I just got a note from Sophie Migliazzo that she has some notes to send me on the 14th minutes. So, she's asking that we postpone those. Are there any of those comments available to make corrections in real time? Sure. For the 14th? Yes, I can do that. So, Tara, you have the minutes that you could adjust them in real time? Yep. Go right ahead, Sophie. OK, it was on second page paragraph six on elections. When it, the 18,000 and 17,000 was last, I believe it was 2021. It's not over two years. It was two separate reimbursements in one year. OK. Is that it? Thank you. Al Tassi, you're on mute, Al. Could you go to item 13? I incorporated your note here. And you also sent in a note about number 14 as well. Right, and I was looking to delete the second sentence. Some 23 budgets include reserve fund monies and the committee is on. I think that sentence should be deleted. I don't know what it means. 23 budgets cannot have reserve funds in them. I think we should delete that whole sentence. Is that it, Al? Yes. Thank you. Any other comments on the meetings as I'm sorry, on the minutes for the meeting of the 14th as amended? Al, would you make a motion to accept the minutes? I move to accept the minutes as modified. Is there a second? I guess. It's moved and seconded. Any comments, questions, or discussion? Grant Gibbian? Yes. Shane Blundell? Yes. John Ellis? Yes. Micaiah Healy? Brian Beck. Micaiah, Brian Beck, and Arif Adari are still out here, right? Brian Beck explained. All right, music. Please make sure your microphones are muted if you're not speaking. Sophie Migliazzo? Yes. Jonathan Wallach? Yes. Shailene Pocrus? Yes. Darrell Harmer? Yes. Annie LeCourt? Yes. Alan Jones? Yes. George Kosher? Yes. Bill Keller? Yes. Alan Tosti? Yes. Juan D'Alessimento? Yes. Christine Deschler? Yes. Dean Karman? Yes. And David McKenna? Yes. The minutes are approved. Thank you. So before we get into the budget of the planning and community development, I want to make a couple of comments. And actually mostly about that budget. So if you've been reading your emails, you realize that there's been some intensive discussion about the appearance of public citizens before the finance committee to provide input on budgets. And specifically the budget of the Department of Planning and Community Development after the minutes were posted last week, after the agenda was posted last week. This whole subject may take some time. The whole budget may take some time this evening. So I'm making some adjustments to the agenda within the scope of the open meeting law. First, if we run short of time in the meeting, we will postpone the warrant review because the copy we received isn't in the best of shape in expecting that we'll get an updated version within the next 24 hours. I have asked Al Tosti and he has accepted to coordinate the presentation of the warrant with the Board of Selectment in the town council. So we should see an updated and numbered version very shortly. Second, with respect to the speakers who are members of the public or not members of the finance committee in general, I'm limiting presentations to three minutes. In addition, this afternoon I sent out invitations to all of the people who had communicated to us in writing to offer them the opportunity to speak this evening if they wished. And we had some positive responses which I will speak to in a few moments. My constraints in this process are that the speakers must stay within the three minutes unless I rule or for otherwise. And the second is that proper decorum and civil discourse must be maintained. Some members of the committee and some writers from the public have expressed concerns. The finance committee may be wasting its time listening to speakers from the public. I suppose I should be touched that there's so much concern about our time and efficiency. But I think the chair can manage these issues. In my view, we're a body of the public and we are never wasting our time listening to inputs from citizens who wish to speak. Some may think in advance that they do not agree with an opinion that might be expressed by a speaker. But whether we agree with someone or not is not a criteria for allowing them to speak. I have afforded the writers on this subject the same courtesy and follow up and detail that I afforded a correspondent last year who wanted to reduce the police budget and increase the health and human services budget. In that instance, it turned out the individual ultimately determined that she didn't want to speak to the committee, but the offer was there. As long as I'm chair under the appropriate circumstances with advance notice and serious discourse, I will allow members of the public to address the committee on budget items, just as we do on Warren articles. I heard from one person, quote, that people were considering that I accepted these speakers because I favored their position. That is an unfortunate viewpoint and I find it insulting. Whether or not I agree with a potential speaker is totally immaterial as to whether a person should speak, whether the subject is defunding the police, the Department of Planning and Community Development budget, or some other issue. People have a right to speak on these. As a committee, we have nothing to fear from the public. And I personally have the highest confidence in both the budget working groups and the committee as a whole, that the committee will make the right decision in the best interest of the town as it always has done. I accept the criticism that my choosing seven minutes speaking time was overly generous and unnecessary, but I unfortunately, I mentally just latched onto a number that I knew the town meeting use without giving it a lot of thought. So with those comments, I think actually we're a little bit early. So I think we will get on with that budget, but we'll have to, I think we should wait for another 10 minutes or so. So let's see if we can fit another budget in in the meantime. And on the agenda, we have information, technology, treasure, collector, postage, parking. Can we address any of those budgets? And I've got a revision to make on the pension budget. Okay, let's deal with that. Go ahead. And Charlie, also, I'm sorry, Alan Carr-Jones informed me today that we need to revote the fire budget because there was a mathematical error. Okay, so let's take the change in the non-contributory pension. Yes. Yes, okay, so we'll do that first and then second we'll do the change in the fire budget. Go ahead, Al. Okay, the pension budget, as you know, is made up of two parts. One is the general retirement costs and the other is the non-contributory pension, which as most of you know, has been in the $18,000 or $19,000 range for a long time. The one person that has been receiving this non-contributory passed away last week. So there is no longer a need for an appropriation under the non-contributory pension. Therefore, if you have out your budgets on page 152, the retirement cost, 14,846,687, as printed remains the same. Non-contributory is zero. Therefore, the pension appropriation total now is 14,846,687. The offsets are the same and the bottom line now is 13,367,833. 13,367,833. So from now on our contribution to the OPEB fund will be an even 500,000 that we'll discuss when we get to that budget. So I'd like to make all that change in the pension budget. Is there a second? Second. So it's been moved in second. Seconded any discussion? Questions? Well, I'm sure that person has had a long and interesting life. That individual whether I know whether there's a worker or a survivor, but in those people in that count work for the town prior to 1939. So that's quite an age. So it's been moved in second. Pardon me. It was a survivor. It was a survivor. Yeah. So it's been moved and seconded and there's no further discussion. So we'll move to a vote Grant Givian. Yes, votes yes. Shane Mundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Makaya Healy. Brian Beck. Yes. Padaria. Sophie Migliazzo. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Shailene Procrest. Yes. Darrell Harmer. Yes. Annie LaCourth. Yes. Alan Jones. Alan Jones. Derek. Yes. Can you speak, Alan? Yes. Thank you. George Cozer. Yes. Bill Keller. Yes. Alan Tassi. Yes. Juan de Nacimento. Yes. Christine Dashler. Yes. Christine Dashler. Yes. Can you hear me, Kelly? Got you. Yep. Dean Carmen. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. So the amendment on the uncontributory retirement budget unanimously. So the next, Jonathan Wallach on the fire budget. Yes. Thank you, Charlie. Apparently the chief has a $2,000 step increase this year and that step increase was shown in the salary details, but was not included in the summation of the salary total. So the salary total for the fire department needs to be increased by $2,000. And therefore the taxation total also needs to be increased by $2,000. So I am recommending that we approve a budget of 7,744205. Alan Jones, do you agree with that? Alan Jones. Yes. Yes. I went back and forth with Sandy about it and it was just one of the usual disconnects between the salary budget and the final budget. Okay. Okay. So any questions for Jonathan? So Jonathan made a motion. Is there a second? Second. So it's been moved in second for $7,744,205 as the new fire budget bottom line number. Seeing no further discussion. Grant Givian. Mr. Chairman Grant Givian has your question. Oh, Grant Givian. Yes. Thank you. Alan, thank you, Charlie. I was going to take opportunity to mention that did. I don't know whether I need to ask it in this budget or any town budget has the line item of electricity in it. But I did have a question about it based on something I heard last time. And that is these departments obviously, well, I shouldn't say obviously, but the departments I don't believe are individually metered for electricity. So how is that allocated? I can't answer that question. I frankly don't know the answer to that question, Grant, but I have a couple of other questions from the committee that I have yet to put to the chief and I will add that one to the list. I see that Adam Cacolini's hand this up. Maybe he can. In these, I was going to say just the next thing. Oh, yeah. Mr. Chairman, would you like me to try to address that question? That would be perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I suppose that's the hazard of attendance, right? You can't let the question go. Actually contrary to what Mr. Gibby said, each building does have its own meter. So some have more than one meter depending on how large the building is. So for the fire departments in particular, they have their own individual electric meters. So they get their own bills that the administrative staff and the fire department then pay. Great. Thank you. Actually I corrected and I did not know and gave it the, I said I corrected the obviously because they did not know that they perhaps did have separate meters. So each of the line items are tied to an individual meter or a collection of meters. Or the collection of meters for that department. Yes. Oh, very good. Thank you. Thanks for your help, Adam. Grant, is that? Yes. I actually, one of the reasons I asked the question is because these gentlemen were in fact in the meeting. So yes, it does answer it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for Jonathan on this revised budget? Okay. Moving to a vote Grant Gibbian. Yes. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Sophie Migliazzo. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Shailene Pocrus. Yes. Darrell Harmer. Yes. Annie LaCourte. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. George Cozer. Yes. William Keller. Yes. Alan Tosti. Yes. Wanda Nascimento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yes. Dean Karman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. It's the unanimous vote to modify the fire department budget as presented by Jonathan. Okay. I think it's an appropriate time to move to this discussion of the planning and community development budget. The first item on the agenda was an overview of the citizens' communications, which I pretty much gave in my opening remarks. Let me say that today I sent out about, I think it was 10, I can't be sure, Tara would probably know 10 emails to people who had written letters to the committee since the agenda was posted last Thursday. And I had a discussion with, and at the same time last week, the town manager asked to speak at this meeting as well. And I was concerned about whether or not we might be violating the open meeting law. So I had a conversation with Sandy Pooler who generously approached the town council about this because I was tied up in meetings this morning. And if I can just put it in my layman's terms, it appears that the requirement for 48 hour notice is on the subjects to be discussed at a public meeting, not necessarily the speakers, okay? So having had that information this afternoon, I sent out these numerous emails inviting the people who sent the emails to speak tonight and asked that they respond by a time certain and with whether or not they, if they were interested in speaking and they did. So in addition to the original speakers that we had on the agenda of Carl Wagner and Patricia Warden, I count in the responses, Jennifer Seuss, Joseph Solomon, Eileen Cahill, and then Adam Chaplain and Sandy Pooler. Tara, did you have any other names that came in before six o'clock? I did not, no. Okay, thank you. So is Carl Wagner, oh, let me also ask, which I didn't do during the taking of the minutes. I noticed that there are some members of the public here that aren't on this list of names that I just read. Can you please identify yourselves for the minutes of the meeting? I see Michelle Orfanos, Michelle. Okay, I see Michelle is connected, but she's, and Joanne Preston, Joanne. So Joanne Preston is here. Carl, Carl Wagner is here. Can I just say my name? Sandy Pooler, Rebecca Gruber, Eileen Cahill, Barbara Thornton, Maureen Nee, Dolores McGee, David Lee, Gina Karmie or Karmé, Joseph Solomon, Michelle Limp, Jennifer Lubbitt, Winnell Evans. I think that's it. Is there anyone, any visitor whose name? Patricia Warden. Oh, I'm sorry, Patricia Warden. Not all, I did mention her name a few minutes ago. Thank you, Patricia Warden. Altos, do you have any hand up? Yes, I just wanted to ask a question if you, Mr. Chairman, before we start, to your knowledge, is the working group that is gonna recommend this budget or any member of the finance committee recommended a reduction in this budget? Not to my knowledge. Thank you. Any other questions? Any, I would appreciate if you capture eye on the personnel here, because I can't get everybody on one screen. No, I'm trolling. Thank you. Okay, so with respect to the public speakers, let's proceed in the order that we receive their names and requests, starting with Carl Wagner. Carl, are you, yes, I see you there. Could you please go ahead and please, you know, contain your comments within three minutes, please. All right, I'm on an iPhone. Hopefully you can hear me at a little bit of trouble setting up. But anyway, my name's Carl Wagner. I live on Edge Hill Road in Arlington. Thank you very much to the chair and the committee for allowing me to address you following my email to you of February 11th, I think. I would request that you would modestly reduce or freeze the budget of the planning department at the total funds plus CDBG level, grant level of last year. My concern is that the department should be producing internal conclusions based on staff member produced work, except in very specialized highly technical cases. I believe the staff has a staff of nine or more currently while our town has been fully built out for years and while we face a structural problem in our budgets that we need to address by controlling spending better. In addition to frequently paying for consultant studies, the planning department staff appear nearly all town boards, committees, subcommittees that I've attended and they seem to have enough time to engage in monitoring public opinion. Instead of that activity, I would ask the planning staff to offer their own reports and spend less time appearing in direct public opinion. I've lived in the town 24 years and I grew up here. After I moved back to town, I'm proud to have been a town meeting member for over 10 years in different precincts and we're all very lucky to have you, the members of the volunteer finance committee. So thank you for that. This town really is of and by and for its people. I never felt I had to pay attention to the planning budget in the past, but recently I've noticed that the use of consultant produced reports has really grown. In addition to the extra cost, using consultant studies seems to function as a way to push through changes without the responsibility for such changes being attributed to department staff. A good example is the housing production plan. This was completed by a consultant who also worked in our master plan. Oops, sorry about that. Just kill that. The problem with it has many levels. Consultant didn't address a number of commonwealth required subjects and effects on infrastructure and services weren't considered. And then finally, it produced major decisions that Arlington residents, not planning staff, deserve to be the deciders of. For example, among other things, it called for ending single family zoning. The plan was voted in a public meeting of the redevelopment board, but the public really never had a chance to approve it in any body. And the final version of the plan wasn't even seen by the public and possibly not even by the redevelopment board. And to everybody's surprise, the final version also got rid of two family zoning, supposedly as a recommendation by allowing three family units. Anyway, the point I would make is that the planning department is paid for by the existing residents and businesses of Arlington. And the work it does really has to go along the stated goals of those in town meeting, the people who are elected on the slack board and the people who live here. The planning department really should be working better so that it's for the people of Arlington and doing the work of those people only. Thank you very much. Thank you, Carl. The next presenter is Patricia Warden. Ms. Warden, Mrs. Warden. Thank you, Mr. Postman. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you very much. Patricia Warden, Jersey Street, town meeting member precinct eight. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I came to United States when I graduated from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and to Arlington after earning a couple of degrees at Harvard. I also served in the Arlington School Committee as member and chair and then the Arlington Housing Authority as member and chair. I served in many other committees and commissions including the Human Rights Commission. I can tell you more about myself later on but I want to switch my three minutes. So tonight, I urge you to take special care with the effects of the planning department's budget on the town, particularly with respect to their major goal, which is to drive up residential density. The alleged reasons for this drive to maximum density are twofold. First, it would increase affordability but that is false. It will and indeed is even now decreasing affordability. The second alleged reason for the drive for thousands more residential units is that it will increase diversity but that also is false. It will decrease diversity drastically and with expected gentrification. I believe Ms. Cahill has already sent a letter for your consideration, pointing out damaging effects that drastic density increases can have on infrastructure and sewage and overwhelming such structures. I am dealing with only one, only one crucially important issue which is the effect of increasing density on school costs. Our five children were educated entirely in the Arlington Public Schools and one of our 13 grandchildren is currently in the system. So I know Arlington Public Schools well, it takes a lot to ensure good education. Our school budget is increasing faster than other budgets. Already the outlook is for increased taxes and humongous overrides. Driving up residential density could exacerbate school costs greatly. New elementary schools may be needed at around $50 million each. Please consider the increasing tax burden. The planning department's outsized budget and staffing will have enabled if their relentless drive for thousands more residential units is successful. Please scrutinize their somewhat oversized budget. We don't want your time is up. Any more residents of modest means. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. The next speaker is Jennifer Seuss. Jennifer. Yes, I see I'll toss it as a standard. Do you want me to? Can you hang on one second please? I'll toss it, do you have your hand up? Yes, I just wanted to ask a quick question of Mr. Wagner. Let's wait until all the speakers have presented if that's all right. Well, it just, I didn't hear of any changes to the budget, which is the only thing before us. If he doesn't want to make any changes into the budget. Okay, I've allowed them to speak. Thank you. Jennifer, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No worries, no worries. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk. Arlington is blessed with having some really good people who work in the department's professional people. As I'm sure you know, despite the fact that they don't get a top salary as much as some other towns, I mean, we are really blessed with that. And I think that has a lot to do with the respect that they feel both from the town manager and from the finance committee. I think this has been a body who has shown our professional staff a tremendous amount of respect for their professionalism. And I worry that this move, this feels very different that the move to cut a department for what seems like ideological reasons will have ripple effects throughout many other departments and will lead to losing some really good people. And I don't think that's what we want. So I'd urge you to not cut a department because of not liking certain things that they're doing. I also just want to speak to a couple of more things. One is on my work in the school committee, you know, as the population grew, we didn't always add things equally because sometimes there was a need in a place that didn't exist 10 years ago. And so the fact that the planning department has added positions in light of different kinds of needs that we have, different kinds of needs that the residents are frankly asking for makes a lot of sense to me. And I think that those decisions were made carefully over many years with lots of consultation between this committee, the town manager's office, professional staff. And again, I just urge you not to sort of undermine that relationship that I think has been really positive and really good throughout the years. 20 minutes and one more thing. Oh, the housing production plan I think is very good. I saw it a couple of months before. I saw it was on the town website for a couple of months. It was promoted heavily. This wasn't done behind anyone's back. I know, and it did not stipulate that any particular action get taken. Any zoning change we make has to go through the planning department, I mean, planning department, redevelopment board, town meeting. So even if we have a consultant who's recommending a choice of action, that doesn't mean that that action sort of automatically takes place, which I sort of sounded what Mr. Wagner was suggesting. So that's it. Third thing is we have a grade school system. It's the elementary schools are actually at their peak as of last year. So we have some space there. And yeah, I just urge you to not sort of make a motion, a move that would undermine the relationship that I think has been carefully developed over the years. Thanks. Thank you, Jennifer. So the next speaker is Joseph Solomon, Mr. Solomon. Yep, can you hear me? Yes, thank you. All right, well, thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. I shared some general written comments earlier about just the value of planning in the face of change, but I wanted to mention just a couple of points this evening. One was that my parents purchased their home in Arlington in 1980 and our family seen at this point over 40 years of change, right? And from all indicators, the town has managed this very effectively, right? Arlington is a strong community and incredibly attractive place to live. And obviously as a child growing up in town, I wasn't close to the process of how this was managed, but as a parent now going through what my parents before me went through, I am very grateful that the plans and actions were undertaken as I was growing up. And now looking forward, I really can't see how the need to have these plans will decrease, right? I'm just a regular Joe, I'm not on any committees or town meetings, but I know the MBTA community guidelines are coming out and we need planning to figure out how we implement those so that we don't put a lot of state funding at risk. We need to understand as a town how we march along with the state towards 2050 net zero guidelines, right? And all of the other things that are gonna come up over the years. And if we aren't prepared for these changes, the town will fall behind and the progress that we've made will be at risk. So my concern is that by any holding constant or reduction in the planning department's funding, it puts the ability of Arlington to continue its excellence at risk. So that's all thanks again for the opportunity to speak. Thank you, Mr. Solomon. So the next speaker is Cahill Eileen Cahill. Hi, thank you. My name is Eileen Cahill and I live in Arlington and I grew up in Arlington. Speaking tonight with concern and I wrote to with the housing production plan and it's to my knowledge, I don't see any force like thought in the infrastructure planning, how that would be affected. So I'm a civil engineer and I've done a lot of sewer and water design and we don't see it, but that's a good thing when we don't, right? We don't see the wastewater. So my concern is changing the zoning of the town without considering how it's impacting our infrastructure which is so critical to the town, the health of the town. And so, you know, I wrote in the email and I think the board saw it, it has huge financial implications for the town. We, you know, when we design a sewer, we literally count the lots, we look at the zoning, we say, okay, it's R1, say three bedrooms per house, we're gonna estimate 110 gallons per day per bedroom. I mean per house, yeah, per bedroom. So 330 gallons per day. And that's how we size the sewer. And throughout the town, there are, you know, this is an old community. So we have old infrastructure. And I know, you know, the town is spending money lining the sewer. And I think that's likely for, I haven't read the reports, but I'm sure it's for like to reduce infiltration into the sewer system, which is like water that leaks into the sewer, that's clean water. We don't want that in the sewer, you know? We don't want to have to treat clean water. So I just am really concerned from a financial aspect for the town. If we go and change the residential all of a sudden, we, you know, double the population in that area, you have that much more flow going to say the sewer. And not only the pipes, you know, they can hold a lot depending on the slope or what have you, but then what about the pump stations? You know, and what about those low houses? And right now I have a list of like probably 20 locations in town that, you know, have we talked to the department of public works? Cause they know the trouble spots, you know, the actual people that operate the system. I think we really need to talk to them before we go change the zoning on any, you know, anywhere in town. There's just so many questions that I really, the report that I have skimmed. Honestly, I haven't dove into it, but there was no tables, it was a lot of words. And that really concerns me if we base our, you know, our makeup of the town on that, because it is a solid town because we have maintained control. Ms. Kay, I think your time is up. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your comments. So that brings us to town manager chapter lane. And since there've been a lot of subjects covered here, Adam, that have financial implications, but they're not necessarily directly associated with the department budget. And there were also were some emails, I know that you were concerned about that where the speakers, where the writers did not choose to speak this evening, but do you think seven, three minutes is enough time or do you need more time? I think, Mr. Chair, I can be very brief. And then answer questions the committee will have if that's okay with you. Yes. Great, thank you. So I think I just wanna cover a few things, much of which has already been discussed or just highlighted by you, Mr. Chairman. One, the budget that is before the committee is a level staff budget. There aren't increases being proposed in this budget. In fact, if you look at the book as proposed to you, it's a total planning increase of 0.62%, right? So it's a nearly level budget. The positions being recommended have been funded for a number of years and they fulfill work that is almost entirely guided by goals that are annually set by the select board and the town manager sustainability work, work around environmental planning, work around our natural resources, work around transportation. They really are a powerhouse department that does the work guided by our elected select board. Also, and I think this is what you were just alluding to, Mr. Chairman, the studies that have been referenced, primarily the housing production plan are actually not funded by the taxpayer-funded operating budget out of this departmental budget. The housing production plan, I believe, was fully funded by community development block grants. And in years past, sometimes planning studies have been funded by the operating budget, but in a separate warrant article, not part of this departmental operating budget. So when a separate warrant article is filed, those can certainly be granted added scrutiny, but historically, both this finance committee and ultimately town meeting have voted to approve the expenditure of those funds. So nothing nefarious or untoward is happening. In fact, we are just carrying out the voted wishes of the popular elected town meeting of Marlington. So I think that's an important thing to recognize. Additionally, I think it is, I don't know that diving too much into the housing production plan is overly productive tonight, but I think it's important to mention that it, as Ms. Seuss mentioned, when nothing in that plan is adopted by the creation of that plan or even the adoption of the plan by the redevelopment board and the select board, any type of zoning change or significant policy change would have to be proposed to and adopted by town meeting. So I don't say that to back away from the contents of the plan, but to make clear that the creation of the plan in and of itself doesn't adopt policy or effectuate policy. But perhaps more importantly, I think it's important for everybody to know that the creation of the housing production plan can actually greatly benefit the housing future of Arlington by potentially providing us with safe harbor status against 40B. And the prior housing production plan which expired at the end of last year, right before its expiration was certified by the state because of the number of units that were approved at 1165R Mass Ave, the MyRack property development, which means we were granted one year from October of 21 to October of 22, one year 40B safe harbor status, meaning that if a developer came in wanting to propose a 40B applied to the ZBA, if the town was not in favor of it, it could be turned down for that one year period. By creating a new housing production plan since the past one has expired, we once again have that chance to meet certain housing targets and be able to provide the town safe harbor status from 40B and again, control our destiny for housing within the community. So I think there's actually a very strategic merit to developing and adopting a housing production plan that can benefit the town regardless of your view on housing by providing that safe harbor status and letting us master our own destiny. So I think I'll close with that, but I would be happy to answer any questions committee members might have. Thank you, Mr. Chaplin. So, Al Tosti. Yes, I just had a question for Mr. Wagner. And if I heard him correctly, most of the issues that we raised dealt with grant money, grant studies, community development block grant. Are you recommending that any specific change be made in the planning and community development budget? Mr. Tosti, thank you for your question. I am a neophyte in the ways of the finance committee's expertise. And so I would actually say what I am hoping the people here today, both in the committee and from the public can find a way to do is to help the planning department to do its own work with its own staff when it's not extremely technical because I'm concerned that they are couching political decisions in consultant paid work. I don't know how to ask for that. I do know that if somebody like me were to be in town meeting and ask for in town meeting, everybody always says, oh my goodness, please, can you get your questions earlier in places like finance committee? So that's why I came to you at finance committee to ask for this direction. Thank you, Mr. Wagner. Thank you. Can I answer your question? Yes. Nanny LaCorte, take your hands. Yeah, I do. I don't have a question, but I wanna say something. Is this the right time or do you wanna wait until questions? That's fine. So we're all friends here, Nanny. I know. I just wanna be sure I'm doing things in the order you wanna do them, Charlie. So based on some of the issues that were raised and the correspondence that we received and based on this, in particular, this suggestion that somehow we rein in funding for studies that are grant-based, I've provided to all of you and it's in SharePoint, the CDBG draft year 48 proposal. And I just wanna say a couple of things about how CDBG works, since I sat on that committee for seven years when I was on the select board. So CDBG is direct federal funding. It comes to the town manager and the select board. There is a subcommittee of the select board in combination with the CDBG administrator and I believe the chair of planning perhaps a fifth person that reviews that process and sees those proposals and is tasked with determining what to fund. The CDBG grant comes in four categories. We have restrictions on how much of the total grant we can spend in each of those categories. I believe at least two of those categories are restricted. Adam could probably fill us in about whether the other two are restricted or we can put as much money into them as we want. And those include housing, public facilities, a sort of a public benefits section and planning. And if you look at the material I sent and you look at page two, which lays out the requests and the plans, you will discover something that those of us on the CDBG committee struggled with every year, which is that the section where people are asking for support for social services, things like hockey scholarships, after-school programs, so on and so forth is always oversubscribed. We can't spend as much money as we are requested to spend. And there is a section of that budget that we are allowed to spend on planning and that supports certain standard activities of the planning department, not least of which is the CDBG administrator. And as you will see this year's planning request is less than or only slightly less than the amount of money we are allowed to spend on planning and CDBG budget. And then there are requests in the other two categories. I'd like to point out that I believe, and again, Adam could confirm this or deny it, that if we do not spend the money and we only spend the money based on people requesting it, if we don't spend it, we have to send it back to the federal government. So given that we can't fund more than a certain amount of the one oversubscribed budget and we only have requests for a certain amount in the other categories, otherwise you would see those categories oversubscribed as well, if we don't spend the money that we're spending on planners planning and this planning study, we're sending it back to the federal government. That's all. Thank you, Annie. Shailene, your hand is up. Yes, hi, thanks, Charlie. As a member of the finance committee for two years, I'm listening to all of this and thank you to the speakers who've come tonight. I'm trying to hear the implications for finance. Like what are we hearing? I'm trying to avoid listening to policy decisions because that's not what the finance committee does. The finance committee is supposed to pay close attention to anything that's proposed to us or any budget we approve. Does it have any long-term effects down the road, for example, on like budget increases? And the one thing I heard, and I'm actually, this is more of a comment, I'm asking my fellow committee members to maybe comment. The one thing that I heard was from Ms. Cahill about infrastructure, particularly sewage in that case, but if we're being asked to fund a level budget, that generally seems like the right thing to do, right? So I'm just talking out loud so that my fellow committee members can give me more information in case I'm missing something. But there is a concern based on Ms. Cahill's comments in particular that we may need to put forth a finance committee memo or something that says, hey, you know, these plans could affect infrastructure budget, particularly in sewage. That's my comment. Thank you, Shailene. Anybody have any comments for Shailene? Any committee members have anything they would? I have a comment along those lines, Charlie. Go ahead, Annie, briefly. Briefly, the Housing Production Plan is a policy document that has been endorsed by the ARB and is before the select board, but has not yet been adopted by them. It suggests strategies, none of which need to be implemented, but all of which become tools in the toolbox to reach a housing production goal. It is a long-term plan. We are not going to double the population of Arlington or the number of units in Arlington tomorrow or in five years or probably in 10 years. So I think that the idea that somehow we are suddenly going to have overrun infrastructure or we are going to have huge investments we need to make in infrastructure based on an increase in population is probably assuming short-term things are going to happen that are actually long-term things. I'd also like to point out that we have 43,000 people living in Arlington and at its big population, Arlington had a population of 53,000 people. So it would seem to me that since our infrastructure was able to handle 53,000 people in like 1975 that it's probably capable of handling 53,000 people in 2025. Thank you, Annie. Al Jones. I just sort of want to echo Shailene and thank Ms. Cahill for offering her expertise and bringing up the concerns and all of the finance committee is probably not the right venue for it. I do encourage you to ask the same questions in front of town meeting or any board that's considering adoption of the plan just to make sure that infrastructure capacity is addressed as a concern. I think you're absolutely right. It's probably the wrong venue, but thank you for bringing it up and continue to do that. Thank you. David McKenna. Just to piggyback on what Annie LaCorte said. A number of years ago, we had 10,000, approximately 10,000 school-late children in the town of Arlington. Not all of them went to Arlington Public Schools. We had three parochial schools, first grade to eighth grade that helped us. Mackler Conception, St. James, and St. Agnes. In addition, we had Arlington Catholic High School and we also had Mary Cliff Academy that took in those days girls only that was out on Ridge Street in Winchester. So that over time, we ended up only one parochial school is left, elementary school and the one junior high middle school is left and we closed five elementary schools in that timeframe. So we went down to approximately now we have, as Annie says, we have about 42 to 43,000 people. And one of the things you have to worry on population under civil service law, if you have 50,000 people or more in your town, you do not have to wait three years to take a promotional exam. If you have under 50,000, you have to wait three years. So if you went on the police or the fire and the promotion exam come up, if you had 50,000 or more people, you could take the exam whenever it was available. Under 50,000, you have to wait three years from the time. Thank you, David. Thank you. Christine Deschler. Thank you, Charlie. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing in front of the finance committee right now tonight is the planning and community development budget. I haven't heard anything relating to the budget. Now the housing plan may come before town meeting, in which case town meeting may look to the finance committee for its opinion on that, but that's not before us. That could be another hearing. But in terms of the budget itself, I haven't really heard anything to make me question anything other than something I've already noticed in the budget. And I'm hoping that somebody can answer this question, whether it's the finance committee working group, whether it's Adam, and that is why is the salary line going up 10%? Adam? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the primary driver of that, so there are step increases for staff members, but the primary reason that's going up by such a large amount is that this is the first year that we have in this budget book reported to the CDBG administrator's position. So the CDBG administrator's position is reported up above in the planning salaries, but then is entirely offset in the offsets. So there's really no increase in spending. The CDB administrator position has existed since we've received CDBG, so 35, 30, almost 40 years. It's really, it's accounting and not actually any budgetary increase. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Christine. Dean, did you have your hand up before? I did, but then Shailene and Christine said everything I was gonna say. Okay, good. And once Christine said it, I put it down. Okay. John Ellis. I think, thanks. I want to ask a planning related question because the economic development position is in the planning budget and the town manager's here to speak to it. Arlington gets about 4% or 5% of its total revenue from commercial tax expenses. The 12 towns that we compare ourselves to, the average is about 15%. So given the low commercial tax base that we have, and something that people have alluded to about increasing the housing stock as part of these housing plans, does the town manager have some kind of estimate for as time goes on, how much of Arlington's town budget might be commercial revenue? Is there any chance to increase that percentage or should we expect as the housing stock increases to have an ever lower percentage of our revenue coming from commercial? Mr. Shailene, would you like to answer that? Yeah, I will do my best. So I think it is a hard question to answer with certainty because of the built out nature of the community. I think if you look at changes that have been made in zoning over the better part of the last decade, you've almost entirely been focused on the commercial corridor along Mass Ave and Broadway. So development along the commercial corridor, depending on what it is mixed use, would likely both enhance the commercial aspect as well as the housing aspect of it. It's hard to know exactly, just off the cuff, it's hard to know exactly how that would affect it. The rice is really good, did you put something on it? No. Somebody better shut their microphone off. This is good. Sorry. So I think the places where a significant change could go one way or the other would be the larger industrial areas. So if you think of Arlington, Coal and Lumber, if you think of, what is Gold's Gym now? True fitness, if you think about the area behind the MyRack property, some of which now is being built and the MyRack property, some of which now is being converted to housing, those are the areas that could either be ripe for significant commercial development or potentially in the future, more housing development. And I think that could be where you start to see that 95% versus 5% start to shift. But I think ultimately whatever we see over time is gonna be very incremental because there aren't large tracks of land that are gonna be redeveloped one way or the other. Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. President, but you haven't requested a presentation in advance. Is there anyone else on the committee that has any comments? No hands. Okay. So let me, I'd like to make a couple of comments. First of all, as Christine and Deschel pointed out, I don't think we've heard any recommendations by any of the speakers for specific changes in the planning and community development budget. Secondly, it has been a lot of discussion about the housing development plan, which I think the town manager clarified that this is a, let me say a sort of a smorgasbord of options for development and not something that the town has specifically adopted in any single case. Although as one of the speakers, Ms. Cahill pointed out, many of the alternatives have implications that could have negative consequences for the town if they weren't offset by other considerations. And I think the third thing that was clarified by Mr. Chaffelain, and I believe was mentioned earlier by Dave McKenna and Sophie Megliozzo is that the budget is more transparent than it's been in the past because all of the people working in the budget are shown in the personnel, line item costs, and if they're funded by outside resources, those offsets are shown at the bottom of the personnel table. So those are just my observations about the conversation this evening. Alan Tosti, you have your hand up. I just wanted to follow up John Ellis's comment about the commercial industrial land. The thing, I think the town's policy is going in the wrong direction, Mr. Manager. We need more commercial industrial land. And I think the policy has been strictly towards housing. The MIRAC project is actually removing an office building and putting housing in it. It's going in the wrong direction. We're not gonna have any more businesses in commercial area unless the town leadership pushes for it and encourages it in every way we can. So that's just my two cents. Thank you. Thank you, Alan. So, I think we've exhausted this topic enough, if I may. So I'd like to turn the subject back to David McKenna and Sophie Miglio-Azzo to make whatever recommendations that they wish to make. Alan, thank you so much. David, your audio's gone. How about now, Charlie? Now we can hear it, yes. Okay. I'd like to have Sophie make the motion with Sophie present the budget and I will second the motion, whatever Sophie desires. Sophie? No problem. And Charlie, I think Alan has a question. His hand's up. Do you want to do that first? Alan Jones, yes, I'm sorry. Not a question, but just this doesn't show up in the manager's budget book, but in the finance committee record, there's a history of the offsets that are broken down. And there used to be a CDBG affordable housing offset around $12,000, which looks like it's disappeared in the manager's book. I clarified this with Jolie today. It's actually been rolled into the CDBG planning offset. So I didn't want town meeting members to think that the affordable housing offset has gone away. So that'll be brought out in the finance committee report to point out, hasn't been brought away. It's just moved to a different line item. We should make that a footnote. Yeah, it'll be a footnote. Thank you. Go ahead, Sophie. Thank you. I'd like to move that we recommend as printed the planning and community development budget for a taxation total of $631,188. Second. Is there any further discussion on this budget? Okay, hearing none, we'll go to a vote. Grant Gibbian. Yes. Shane Blondell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Sophie Liozzo. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Shailene Pocrus. Yes. Farrell Harmer. Yes. Andy LaCorte. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Thank you. George Koser. Yes. Bill Keller. Yes. Al Tosti. Yes. Wanda Nasi-Mento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yeah. Dean Korman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. The budget is passed as proposed unanimously. I'd like to thank all the visitors tonight who took the time to come and speak to us. We appreciate your comments and your viewpoints. And we appreciate the support and interest of the town manager and deputy town manager as well. Thank you very much. So the next subject is the warrant review, which I think, as I said, I think we'll postpone that because it's just, it will be in better shape if we wait until we get the improved warrant, which I hope will be by Wednesday night. So the first budget would be information technology. Al Tosti, who's got that budget? Bill and I have it. Okay. So I sent out an email or Tara sent out an email that I forwarded to her forwarding an email from the IT director on the changes that I guess we convinced her to make. So I'd like to go through the budget on page 34 and 35. Alan Jones, can you display that please? Screen sharing enabled. Oh, but you can try again. Sorry about that. Okay, no problem. Al Tosti, you're on. Okay. Okay, who's ever doing it? Yep. We're recommending no changes in the salaries. So that will stay the same as 701-019. IT expenses are going to change. So let me go through and give you the changes that we're recommending and then go back and explain those changes. So the first change is under the 5219 consulting and the budget there is $32,000. We're recommending a change to 37,000. Now the consulting will be broken down support for water and sewer data archive for approximately 12 months. That's about 5,000. That was basically cash transferred from another wine item. Office 365 support for mailbox and calendar conversion and migration, 5 to 10,000. Network consulting, cybersecurity enhancements 10 to 12. And wiring of town offices. No, there's network of about $10,000. The next change is Unix hardware support $2,300. That becomes zero because it's no longer needed. Information maintenance of $7,000 becomes zero because it's no longer needed. Now part of that money in effect sort of gets transferred over to consulting which is the reason for the increase to help for at least a year for some archiving and being able to retrieve information where it might be necessary. The next line item that's changed is computer paper of $2,300 and that becomes zero because she says it's no longer needed. And the final change is courier services 5350 becomes zero because she said that's no longer needed. So those combined changes lead to a drop of $7,000 and I could give you the exact numbers later. I believe it was Ellen Jones asked where the Microsoft 365 is that maintenance that is under software maintenance item 5305. And you can see where it went from the approximately 48,000 in 21 to 109,022 that's where the Microsoft 365 expenses are. And she recommended an increase of 2,000 because of some license increases that she is expecting. Oh, let's see. The big increase in network maintenance, no. Yes, network maintenance is because the need to increase the capacity of the network because of the transferring of items to the cloud. She's thinking that we might have some savings. I pushed her on this from that but she'd like to see if there are any savings next year in which case there can be some reductions. But basically she said they need, they're expanding the network more into the town hall. They're looking for changes to go to hybrid for a lot of the town systems, especially committee meetings and such going to the cloud they need to make the pipe bigger and that's primarily the change there. I think those were the major questions and the major changes. Water and sewer going to mutinous from the old system is going to be live in March. They've made all the changes, they've tested it and March is the date. So that's all I have to say now. I could give you the changes in the numbers now or wait till the end when we're going to take a vote up to you, Mr. Chairman. We can wait till we're at the end. Okay. Any questions for Al and Bill? Can you, somebody, Annie, if you've got your eye on the... Alan Jones has his hand up. Alan Jones. Yeah. Thank you. I'm glad to hear where the 365 funding is and in terms of the consulting budget, I'm actually surprised that it isn't more for the email conversion because that's a huge job. But my question is, was there much discussion about security and the increased need for security against all the threats that are coming in? Sorry, I didn't hear anything specific about security increases. Well, one of the items under consulting in the email we sent out was network consulting. And she just said cybersecurity enhancements. She mentioned MFA. I'm not quite sure what that means, but 10 to 12... All de-factor authentication. Yeah. So about a third of the consulting is for security enhancements. We didn't discuss Ukraine. Our discussion was over a week ago. Yeah, okay. I just read about Tewkesbury. You know, when a fishing thing costs about $100,000, I think it was Tewkesbury. So I just want to make sure we're paying sufficient attention to that. Thank you. So that was one of the specific things that she mentioned was a system called Barracuda. And that's set up to catch any information that would maybe go elsewhere and scans the information on the computer. So it also works so that an employee could work from home and also have the same anti-fishing capability for their home computer that they would if they were in the office, per se. Yeah, that's a firewall that isn't quite... What I'd really like to see is a lot of employee training because it's usually fishing attacks and things where it's the human element that is the vulnerability more than the hardware in the network. Thank you. Annie LaCorte. Yeah, just apropos of the same subject of security, I did have a discussion over the summer with Sandy Pooler regarding this and regarding the fact that, you know, we're seeing these kinds of increased and more sophisticated threats and that they're often attacking vulnerable institutions municipalities being one of those vulnerable institutions because they tend to be technologically behind. And Sandy says the town is very much aware of these problems has experienced some of them keeping an eye on security and is working with other municipalities for everybody to stay abreast of what needs to be going on. So I think that's part of why they have a security consultant coming in. And I don't think anybody's asleep at the switch about this. And then I would just like to say one more thing about informants maintenance and so on and so forth on the way and that is hallelujah. I'll second that. Thank you, Annie. Let's see any other questions here, Shane. Thank you, Charlie. I have a strange question, but we don't need computer paper anymore. I guess, how does that work? I think what she's doing in some of these cases is they're trying to consolidate some of these accounts. And I think that, you know, specifically all you're seeing computer supplies, that's still $6,500. So I assume what she's doing there is trying to print out less paper. And she's still got $6,500 there in computer supplies and repairs there. So I think there's probably some paper built in there. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, I don't see any. I have a couple of questions, Al. Where are they located and how well are they operating now? I mean, they were up in the basement in the school. I know they've moved. I think they're in some location in DPW. Is that, are they functional there? To tell you the truth, I don't think the discussion ever came up. Bill, do you remember? No, there's some talk about moving things to the cloud versus having a server run through the road street. But I don't think that directly answers the question. And then anything come up about, you know, once the DPW building is finished or as it gets further finished than the facilities that are supposed to be available for data processing are available. Is that a, is that a, is that move a capitalized cost or is it operating costs? Okay, I'll be happy to see if I can answer that. I can get that information. Where they're located now and where they're going to move and how will that be paid for? Yeah. And then the third question I have is, I think is maybe related to the informants change that you presented and Annie also mentioned. But is the water and sewer transition, is that the last application that's going to go up on Munis? In other words, we've been waiting for that for years. We spent probably close to a million dollars on the Munis software in for a long time. We haven't had all the applications up. I'm just wondering if that's the last one. It's my understanding it is in both the controller well, probably the controller mentioned a couple of times that's been a real problem to do. But they got it done and hopefully everything will work out fine. But I believe that's the last application. Everything's on Munis now and both the controller and the IT have Munis training in there probably to bring everything up to date. Bill, do you have anything to add on that? No, I don't, thank you. Thank you, Al. So Al, maybe you can now give us the numbers. Okay, so basically you're subtracting $7,000 down. So expenses is now 639213, total $1,340213. So Al has moved the total expenses of $1,340,000, I'm sorry, total a budget of $1,340,213 in the IT budget. Okay, minus the offsets. Oh, minus, yeah. For a bottom line of $1,100604. Is that a motion, Al? Yes. Is there a second? Second. So it's moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the IT budget? Hearing no requests for further discussion, we'll move to a vote. Grant Gibbian? Yes. Shane Blundell? Yes. John Ellis? Yes. Brian Beck? Yes. Sophie Migliazzo? Yes. Jonathan Wallach? Yes. Shailene Pocrus? Yes. Darrell Harmer? Yes. Andy LaCourt? Yes. Alan Jones? Yes. George Cozer? Yes. Bill Keller? Yes. Al Tosti? Yes. Juan de Nacimento? Yes. Christine Deschler? Yeah. Dean Korman? Yes. David McKenna? Yes. So the IT budget is passing out on its way. Thank you very much. The next budget, Treasurer Collector, is also Al, you and Bill and Brian. That's going to have to wait. We have not met with the Treasurer Collector on her budget of the parking and the postage budget. We will try to get that done as soon as possible. The insurance budget, of course, is the one that we have to wait until mid-March after the rates come in. Okay, so let's see if I have this right. So you don't have Treasurer Collector postage in parking, right? That's correct. We knew about the insurance. So, yeah, if I may, I think Brian mentioned that he's in the process of trying to get an appointment with the Treasurer someday next week. I sent her an email today, because I just got back from my vacation. Okay, so can you get together with, so we won't have this budget on Wednesday, is what you're saying, because you haven't met with them yet, right? Right, I hope to get a meeting with her this week. Okay, can you get together with Tara, perhaps by the next, you know, by Wednesday night, and then let us know when you think you'll have that budget available? I'll let you know. Okay, thank you. Any other budgets that anybody has ready for this evening? Okay, so let's take a stab at the warrant review since we have the time. So, unfortunately, Tara, can you put up the warrant? Yes, one sec, can everyone see that? Yes, any chance you can make it, there we go. And now make it a full page width, perhaps? Yeah, that looks good, okay. All right, so I don't know if you can do this on the screen. Is this a Word document, Ann, Tara? Yeah, no, I think this is a PDF, but I think, you know what, let me download it and I can edit it or make comments on it a different way. So just use that here. Okay, so any chance you can, there we go, perfect. So what I would ask is that we just add a number, we'll call it Tara's, we'll call it T1, T2, T3 or whatever, next to when we get to any articles that are not numbered. Okay. Going to the next page, next page. Okay, state of the town address, not our scene there, reports of committees, measure of wooden bark, election assistant town managers. So please go to the next page. Okay, article six, by-law amendment updating the human rights commission by-law. That doesn't look like a finance committee article, does anybody think we should be reviewing that? I don't hear anything. Okay, by-law amendment and young adult advisory board. So why don't you call that article T7, Tara? Okay, so anyone think we should be reviewing that? Okay, the next article is the by-law amendment for the Civilian Police Advisory Commission. I don't think that's a financial article. Anybody have any comments on that? Since I'm looking at the screen here and I can't necessarily see all of you at the same time, just speak up if you have a comment, okay? So that's, this should be T8. The next article is by-law amendment achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from town facilities consistent with the town. Yes. Sorry, just because you said didn't- Oh, Shailene, go ahead. I did have a quick question on the police advisory commission. Yes. I think we heard a couple of meetings ago that there are some statewide initiatives in a similar vein. And just, I had a similar thought about that to when I just read this warrant article is whether we could, as a committee, look into whether there are any financial implications for that advisory commission. Maybe someone here knows that there aren't gonna be any financial implications on article. I think that's STA, but I'm just interested because we're gonna keep, we're gonna keep hearing about police. It's gonna keep coming up. So I think- Daryl, do you have any inputs on that or observations? Daryl? Sorry, I'm trying to get off me. Sorry, could you repeat the question please? Yes. So why don't you repeat your question, Shailene? Yeah, Daryl, I'm just wondering if you could comment on whether you see any financial implications in the future. Like I know setting up an advisory committee generally doesn't cost us any money because people are volunteering their time, but I don't know. This is how things get started, do you know what I mean? Like we're gonna keep hearing about the police budget. There are people who want to remove finances from the police budget or put them in other places. And I'm just wondering if there's something to unpack here with this article. And you may not have the answer, but I didn't wanna just let it go with this committee scrolling past it and saying, yeah, yeah, that one's fine. I think there's a lot there. So if you have any comments, please. I don't, we hadn't seen this article when we had our budget meeting with police. I can ask the chief if she anticipates any budgetary implications. So there is a final vote on this that I believe that's been put forth by the, I think there was a recommended, the people advocating for this have put forth a recommendation and the select board has modified it and we'll be bringing it to town meeting. So I think we could get a copy of that. And exactly how is this gonna be constituted and what are its duties going to be? I know that it is not gonna have investigative or subpoena power. So that certainly means it won't be spending a lot of money on that. It's supposed to be advisory. But there's no, in this article, there's no request for appropriation or spending. There's no dollar number. I don't believe so. I think it's just what is the advisory committee gonna assist in what are its duties? But that doesn't mean Shalien's wrong. It just means that we may not know this year. Right? So who's the chair of the police civilian advisory board study committee? Does anyone know? I don't know for sure. I know Sanjay Newton is on it, but I don't know who's chairing it. Okay. So Daryl, perhaps you could check with the chief and talk to somebody on the committee and see if we can address Shalien's question to some degree. Charlie, I have a question too. Yes, Christine. I'm just wondering whether this may, this may be redundant to the state police advisory commission. I was actually just thinking that too, that in which case I assume the state police reform act would supersede this or at least take precedence over it. Okay. So, but let me, let me just, I appreciate your comment, Christine, but I think that would still be determining that would be the job of the Board of Selectment. So perhaps the step that you can take, Daryl, is just to answer, you get some sort of an indication for Shalien as to whether or not there are financial implications to the, or spending plans for this commission. Okay. The basic issue. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Article T9, bylaw amendment achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions from town facilities consistent with bylaw. So anyone have any comments on that? It's not an appropriation article. Charlie, would that affect you in the capital planning in the sense that? I think you're right. I was about to say that. Brian. So, Jonathan, could you, before we decide whether or not to have a hearing on that, could you dig into it a little bit and find out if, what impact this is going to have on the cost of our buildings? I can certainly do that. Yes. There's two categories here. One is new buildings and the other is existing buildings. You know, what do we have to go back and renovate buildings or whatever? Okay. Okay. I can check out first touch base with Sandy see what he knows about this. Okay. Great. So, Kara, why don't you make a note on T9 that Jonathan is going to look into that? Thank you, John. Bylaw amendment tree preservation and protection. Okay. John Ellis, do you know anything about this? John still on? He's still there, everybody's. He may have stepped away. You want me to highlight it to come back to it? Yeah, I think we should. Yeah. Okay. We can review that when John is back. John Ellis knows a lot about trees, so. But it looks to me like there's some, I don't know where we get the people who do the certification, the landscape professional, et cetera, that's going to require a spending of some sort. It may already be in the budget or it may not. Bylaw amendment, domestic partnerships. I think this, I'm a little worried by the bottom line. Specify employment benefits relationship to domestic partnerships. That could really open up a can of worms. As you know, health insurance is extremely expensive for the town. The only thing holding it back now is the GIC policy. They have to be married to get benefits. But I'd be a little concerned about that. So, Al, you're recommending that we have a hearing on this? I think so. What is it? I don't know if anybody else feels that way, but you know. So, Tara. What benefits is a red flag? It adds a, that we have to, means we have to contact the, is it the, yeah, the LGBTQIA plus rainbow commission? So, I have this money. This is Shailene. And I just wanted to second what I was saying. I think we should have. Thank you. Okay. The next article is by law amendment, single use plastic water bottle regulation. I don't see an appropriation there. It may, it may raise the cost of plastic bottles or consumer goods to the citizens, but it's not, it doesn't look to me like it's an appropriation. Probably what about where it says provide for enforcement? Okay. I think you're right. We, we'd have a, maybe we'd have a, like parking meter officers, we'd have plastic bottle officers or something. I don't know. I don't think this would be a big deal. You only have, let's say you have 20 places, 30 places in the town that sell water. You know, the, I think the regular health department could probably take care of this. They're inspecting those places anyways. Shailene, do you still have your hand raised? Sorry, that was leftover. Okay. All right, let's, let's just leave that for the time being. The use of face surveillance. I don't think this is a finance committee article. Establish a committee on insurance costs and issues. This looks like a study committee. Does anyone have any reason that we think we should review this? I don't think so. They come back with recommendations that whatever the recommendations are for future action might be a finance committee article. Noise abatement. Can you move that up a little bit, Tara? Thank you. I have no idea what this means. The mention of the Arlington DPW, I might want to ask if it has the possibility of increasing costs for the DPW, if that would pass. Okay. So, Christine, do you have DPW? Who's got DPW? I have DPW. I can, I can ask about this question. Did you find that from Mike Radamaker if this is going to have a cost? And then we'll figure out what to do about it. Same thing with article T16 here. So, T17, viral amendment conversion of gas station dispensing pumps as self-service operation. That looks to me like a cost to the gas station owners, but not to the town directly. I think we can skip that one. Bylaw amendment of certain toxic road enticides on public property with reporting requirements and public education. Okay. Annie and Wanda, this looks to me like it's going to have a cost. Hmm. So. Yeah, let's, let us, when we bring Christine in, let's add, I'll add that to our set of questions for her. Okay. See what I can find out in advance. That would be great. We'll note that I'm going to do that and then we'll figure out, we'll just make sure she can answer the question. I mean, usually what happens, these things get passed, you know, then the next cycle doesn't expect the required or something or equipment. I don't know. So, Sophie, do you have anything to do with the next article? The next article. Nope, I don't have anything to do with that one. It's not spelled the same way, but I do have a quick question. I know it's not spelled the same way. I was just. It's easy. Lightly. I know. Charlie, just a quick question, maybe also for the health. Border health is on the noise abatement for leaf blowers because when I looked into this a while ago, it requires them to come out and measure the noise, which would maybe cost more. Yeah. Well, Christine can investigate that. I think that's a good comment. I've also seen conversations at town meeting where the ability to accurately measure the noise level is not that great. In other words, you have to be a sound engineer. You have to have very defined conditions like how many feet away and if the wind is blowing, it's a different sound, et cetera. So there are a lot of vagaries associated with that, but I'm sure Christine will get to the bottom of it. OK, I think the street name is not necessarily our concern here. Vote code enforcement. Definitely, that definitely has financial implications. OK, why don't we make that a get a hearing on that one, Tara? The next one, T21, see if the town will extend the time frame of youth and young adult advisory board. I don't think that that's just a keep the committee in operation. That's not a problem. Both the establishment of the town committee to examine budgetary impact of overnight parking. Well, I think it wants to be slow at the school committee. A lot of Paul Schlickman articles here. I don't think there's an appropriation here. I don't think it's going to have. I don't think we need to worry about T22. T23. I don't think there's any financial implication there. If it's no one else does. Next slide, article. Home rule legislation. Financial estimates and budget documents. Oh, we need to not only have a hearing on this, but to vigorously oppose it. Right now, the manager has to, by bylaw, has to report to the select one in the finance committee by January 15th and have the budget documents to us. They tried to do this about two years ago or three years ago, I think. And this proposes to bump that into early February after the governor gives his recommendations on local aid. Well, that might make it a little more crystal clear on the local aid issue. It basically means we don't get the budgets until the second week in February. We haven't gotten the warrant a month after it closed. And yet, now we're supposed to get everything done in March. This would be a big problem unless they want to move town meaning back a month. So we'll do a hearing. Let's get the select board in. Home rule legislation, early voting for town elections. I would think that has a cost, right? I mean, from our discussion with the town clerk, everything early voting. Absolutely. I think you have a hearing on that. So let's. Would this be a hearing with the select board or? No, the election modernization study committee. Zoning bylaw amendments enhance business. I don't think there's any financial anything financial that we need to review there. But I'm in street trees. Charlie, just a quick question on that one that you said to go one back when it says to limit the amount of ground for retail space occupied by certain businesses. Does that mean less commercial space and less commercial revenue? I'm confused. No, I think what they're after, Sophie, is they're after not becoming a city where all of our streets are lined with offices and lobbies and banks. Lobbies particularly tend to be the commercial space in apartment buildings in our mixed use. So they're trying to encourage more of a mix of businesses. So more commercial, not less. Thanks. Zoning bylaw amendments, street trees. I just want to note that John Ellis is back and there's also a comment about tree bylaws in the chat if anyone wants to look at that. So John Ellis, you're there? Yes. We had an earlier zoning article here. Sorry, I missed it. Yeah, not zoning, but a tree article. I know you're our expert on the trees. So the question is on this article T10, is there going to be an incremental cost to the town by adopting this regulation? No. No, the tree plans are already part of the scope of work of the tree warden. He has a full-time position. So if you're changing the number of trees that are in a tree plan, I can't imagine that would add any more work for him. What about the requirement of a certification by a landscape professional? That would be a builder cost. OK, good. And let's go back to the next tree article that we were just looking at. I don't need to pay for those trees. The previous one was on a private plan. Right, this one to require a street tree every 25 feet. Wouldn't that be a town cost? Yeah, I think we should find that out. I don't understand this one very much. Would we have a tree management plan? That says what our goals are for a tree plan. So why don't you write to Jenny Rae, and maybe she can actually, Sophie, that's your community planning, a community planning, what is planning and community development manager, is also the ex-officio person on the zoning of the Redevelopment Board. So maybe Sophie, you could check this out and see if we need to have a hearing with her. In other words, if the town is paying for these trees, we should have a hearing and find out how much the cost is going to be. OK. If you look at the map, I think that's a lot of trees. I know, that's why I'm asking. So Sophie, we probably have to have a hearing, but you could at least find out. If she turns around and says, this is a burden of private developers or something like that, then we probably This looks to me like a developer cost. Well, it doesn't say that. This would be tens of thousands of trees if the town was planning it then. Yeah, well, let's find out. The Redevelopment Board, yeah, I think it's a good question. I'm interested to see. Zoning by law amendments, solar energy systems. I don't think that's a financial committee article. Zoning by by law. Administrative amendments. I don't think that's finance committee article. The next one is article T 30. No. Article 331, no. 32, no. T 33, no. T 34, no. T 35, no. T 36, no. T 37. Let me let's go back to T 36 by law and family construction allowed by right in our zero and R1 residential zones. Is that going to have any effect on the tax? Oh, no, we have any court here. You can hold the hearing any time, Charlie. I'm here every night. OK. You can present it, but you can't vote. That's OK. All right. So we need hearing on this? Is that going to let's not have the hearing tonight. Let's just make the note that is any of the court. I don't believe it will have a negative financial impact. But if you want to discuss it, I'm happy to be growth. Should I put in that we need a hearing, Charlie? What is there any opinion on this? It's a it's a straight zoning question. Let's leave it be. Zoning by law amendment really increased floor area ratio for mixed use structures. I don't think that's a zoning. That's a no zoning map amendment and expand business districts. That's a no zoning by law apartment parking minimum. I would say that's a no open space uses. I would say no by law amendment map amendment requirements. I would say no zoning by law amendment appeals. No. Oh, that's a Sophie Meigliazzo request. Let's get that one out. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, sorry. Sorry. No worries. Let's see, provide for the right of appeal for any person because Casey alleged violation has not been abated or to our civil proceedings to enforce the bylaws to be initiated or take any action related there too. I think I think this is I don't think that has a financial implication. Local option taxes to see as a town will vote to. That's just a standard article. That's our article. Appropriation of other post employment benefits. That's our 500. That's the article, more or less, right? Yeah, that's our article. You want a recommendation on it? Not right now. OK, well, we're going to make a recommendation. Yeah, why don't you just put recommendation next to that one and the same with T 44 just for we have to we have to take a vote on it. Yeah. OK, and same with the article T 46 recommendation needed. Particle T 47 recommendation needed T 47. Recommendation needed. Now, those of those of your finance group is going to do those, right? Yeah, the rest of the article solutions. Should be finance. Sophie, your hand is up. Yeah, I just quickly I have a question back on the parking minimums. Is there ever a concern or discussion about if you don't have parking at apartment buildings that that increases parking on street and increases enforcement requirements? I'm sure we've had that discussion, but I'm not sure that that's that's sort of an indirect. Issue, I think that's really a. The only board. If anybody else has any other thoughts on it. So go back. We know what happens in the numbers here. So my thing just closed. So yeah, I guess I missed everything since or nothing got saved or nothing got saved after the last time I saved it. So I will have to go back and look at the recording again. If anyone remembers what numbers. Yeah, you can. So let's not let's not do that now. Why don't you go on to. What right there? Transfer fund, cemetery funds. That's a recommendation. OK, appropriately reserves a recommendation. Stabilization funds recommendation. Stabilization. These are all recommendations. Free cash, big access budget. Do we need a hearing on this? No, we'll when I say recommendation, we'll we'll review it and vote for it. Finance, it's a finance committee article. Endorsement of the CDGB application. That's we don't need to do that. That's the board of selectments. Business, revolving funds recommendation. That's not ours. Oh, you're right. You're right. That's that's the board of selecting. Just cross that out, right? We need a hearing on this. No parking benefit expenditures. Hearing. We'll actually get that when we do the parking budget, right? Correct. So that'll be the hearing and that'll be the finance. That'll be the financial committee position, reclassification, recommendation, collective bargaining. That is a hearing, which we will get for the town manager at some point. The town manager. Yeah, appropriation town budgets. That's finance committee. This is it looks like this is the select board and town manager. Well, yeah, but we're going through all the budgets now. So OK, that's a big article and capital budget. We'll have the hearing with the capital budget committee on that. That's already scheduled. What do we know about the fiscal year 2022 budget transferred anybody knowing about this? OK, so David, you and I think we probably need to have a hearing on this. But or it could be a recommendation by David and Sophie. Find out what it's about. OK, Charlie. We may have something to do with ARPA funds. Yes. Yeah, so I'm happy, Dean. I'm happy, Dave, taking it. If it I know this came up at a school department budget meeting, can't remember what came up. So if it ends up falling to be a school issue, can we just administratively kick it over to the school budget subcommittee to look at? Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Charlie, I'll check on that tomorrow. OK. Impropriation, transportation, infrastructure fund. Don't we usually appropriate the last couple of years a very specific amount of money to the penny that we get in a grant? Like the busways down in East Arlington were done under this. Maybe we should have the manager in it at some point in March just to go through all his articles. Yeah, I think that's a good suggestion now. I think anything that says appropriation, we need to have a recommendation. Yeah. And with the blue bikes, I didn't we have this vote last year? Actually, Charlie, I'm on this one because we've got a blue bikes amount in the capital budget. So I'm having on my list to contact Sandy and find out what this money is all about. So Jonathan, follow up. This came up in our capital planning when Dave and I interviewed that not capital planning, the planning department budget. They said I think they were expecting to come and talk to us about it, at least that's how they brought it up because they pointed it out to us. Yeah, I'll check into it because I'm not quite sure why there's additional money being requested here. You think you have it already in the capital budget? Is that what you're saying? I know that we already have sums in the capital plan for blue bikes, including for storage and for expansion of the docking systems. So this looks like it's an operating cost. It might be, but I just have to confirm that we pulled out the funds for the first storage relocation maintenance. And I guess one of the things, if you do point up talking to Sandy about that, I mean, if this is some sort of an ongoing cost, it ought to be in a budget as opposed to foreign articles, I would think. I noticed the word borrowing there, which is interesting. Yeah. Which makes it sound like capital. Here it does, yeah. It's a little confused because you can't borrow for operating expenses, you know. Anyway, I will talk to Sandy about this and see what's going on. So that's basically town manager, but there's a. So should we just vote for it now? It's 800,000. Is that the one that's normally going to come up to 800,000 in 1.2 million for the water or something? We have a 1.3 for the water, yeah. 1.3 recommendation put on there. Well, we'll we'll have to get the details. This is this also shows up. This is show up in the other category in the capital budget. John, well, I'm sorry, the appropriation for the sewer and water is in the capital budget. Well, it is used to be that there was. We always have these two articles. And I'm just not that it was in the other category also in the capital budget. I again, we'll we'll have to check on that. OK, probably we usually grant these. This is Grant's article typically, right? Yes, and the water and sewer budgets usually have 100,000 for each of those budgeted. So the total is 100,000 higher. Yeah, OK, recommendation. Both of those, Charlie or Mr Chairman, I think these are needed to be separate because the votes have very specific language from the NWRA that will be awkward and have to be voted separately as opposed to a line item in the capital budget. You're probably right. OK, that's another grant. I'll give you an article. All right, next article is. Minuteman, that's they'll be in next week. That's a recommendation. We're having a hearing actually Wednesday. The hearing is right. Yes, how do you know has a brief invited the superintendent? Is that who we'll be hearing from? Oh, I don't know. It's yep, it's all set up. Ed, Ed, we're going. Yes, he's coming on Wednesday. OK, OK, the next article, Appropriations, Committees and Commissions. So, Tara, you're writing to all of these people, right? Yes, so far, we've only received one request from the Arts and Culture Commission. Everyone else has requested the same amount, and I haven't heard back from everyone, but most people so far. OK, does the committee want to hear from the Water Bodies Commission? They usually have a relatively big sum, like $50,000, $60,000 or something like that. Do I hear anything? Are they asking for more money? I haven't heard back from them yet. I mean, the question is, what are they doing with it? That's my concern. We usually want to hear their plan. Yeah. So, yeah, follow up with them, Tara. I think we want to hear. Town celebrations, we need to get that information from the manager and miscellaneous appropriations. The manager usually puts these things in the back of his budget book. Yeah, a little bit of a book. That requires the recommendation. We have to vote on that. Oh, there's a separate article for the Water Bodies fund. That's the one. That's where we, well, this is. OK, maybe I didn't email them. I'll look into that. We definitely want to have a hearing on that article. Charlie? Yes, John. Just to go back, I can confirm that the budget has separate capital line items for water system rehab and sewer rehab. In the other category, right? It's under the DPW. You've got you've got 1.4 million for water system rehabilitation and then additional. Just show 900,000 for sewer system rehab. OK, but that is that's in the quote unquote other category. It's not a direct. We have these two articles every year. It's what I believe the former chair used to say they charge too much and then lend it back to us zero interest. If you look at articles 59 and 60 from last year's Fincom report, it has the particular recommendation that we can probably just copy paste. Check the numbers. OK. And the answer to your question is yes, it is it is classified as other. Yeah. So it doesn't go to the 5%. Right. So going down past the folk school, can you go down a little further, Sarah, please? So community preservation fund. So would you contact them? We normally have a hearing and then we endorse their plan. So we should have a hearing. I think the Harry Barber program council on aging. Find out if there did we vote that last year. Does anybody remember? Yeah. I think it's 7500. Oh, OK, so no, we voted zero. No. We voted every year and it's usually 7500. But I think one year at the beginning of the pandemic, we changed it to zero. Right. So if it's if it's 7500 power, we don't need to have a hearing. OK. So just check with the council on aging. The next article is the recommendation, whatever whatever toss these financial group recommends, appropriation design standards. Charlie, does this one need a recommendation? Yes. The financial sub working group will determine the recommendation. Appropriation design standards. It's an appropriation. So we have a hearing. We need a hearing on this. Yeah. Please tell me we don't have to hear any resolutions, Charlie. Good. It's a resolution. All right. Thank you. I didn't see that. I was trying to figure out what it was about. OK. Resolutions we don't need to consider. That's at the end. OK. So Tara, after you after you get the recover the the information from the video on the ones that we went through, if you could just update this document and then send it out to the members. We have a reference when we get the correctly numbered document. OK. And then I can ask the committee. When you get this document from Tara, please review our comments on it. And we can consider again on Wednesday, whether or not we need to think about any changes. There might be some information coming back from some of the members whose names are attached to some of these warrant articles that we would have to have a hearing or not have a hearing or whatever. So in other words, let's look at this activity today as a first reading. And we may wind up having a second reading before we make a final decision on hearings on all of these articles. Is everybody good with that? Yes. OK. So there are no other budgets available. Is there anything that anybody wants to bring up for a future consideration? New business? All right. It's 9.53. It's getting close to the magic hour. I think we're ready for a motion to adjourn. Is there such a motion? So moved. Second. Did I hear a motion? So moved. Yeah, second. OK. By acclamation, we adjourned. Thank you very much, everyone. Appreciate your time.