 We are recording. Okay. Good afternoon. This is the initial meeting of the finance committee. After reappointments have just been done. It is January 23rd, 2024. Open meeting law allows us to continue holding meetings remotely without a form of the committee physically present. And in the meantime, however, the finance committee meetings continue to make. Be accessible through. Amherst media by zoom by phone. And they are regularly broadcast. We now have a form of account of the finance committee present. And so I'm calling the meeting to order at. I'm going to ask each of you to confirm that you can hear us and we can hear you. When I call your name, please. Say it present. And then we'll go on to the next person. Counselor Hanna key. Present. Bob Higner. Kathy Shane. I'm calling the meeting to order at two up to one. I'm going to ask each of you to confirm that you can hear us and we can hear you when I call your name. I'm calling the meeting to order at two up to one. I'm calling the meeting to order at two up to one. I'm calling the meeting to order at two up to one. I'm calling the meeting to order at two up to one. I'm calling the meeting. I'm here. Andy Steinberg. Present. Counselor Walker is still not here. Bernie Kubiak. Present. Matt Holloway. Present. Great. And I'd like to welcome our town manager. Paul Bachman, Jennifer Lafontaine and. Sandy cooler, who is joining us today for the first time. I'd like to welcome our mayor for Amherst. The first item on our agenda today is the election of a chair. And once we elect the chair, I'll turn the meeting over to that person and they will follow the rest of the agenda, which includes electing a vice chair. So the floor is open for nominations, either self-nomination and or a nomination by another person for the position of chair of the finance committee. If I may. I would like to nominate Andy Steinberg. I can't think of a better person who's run this committee or could continue to run this committee. If he's willing. We're all better off for it. Andy, do you accept the nomination? Yes. Okay. Are there any other nominations at this time? Okay. Andy, is there anything you. Has her hand up. Kathy, would you like, please go ahead. Thank you. I would like to nominate Bob Hegner. Okay. Bob, do you accept the nomination? Yes. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Then I am going to ask both. Andy and Bob Hegner in that order. If they have anything they would like to say to the committee. In about a two minute period. Andy. Well, thank you. And thank you, Bernie, for the. Nominating me in the. Confidence. And I have thought about this question and when I said yes, it was because I decided that. It is a goal. We're in a very difficult period with finance committee. But not because of the committee itself, but because of the financial challenges that are underway. And I. Would like to make sure that. We address those challenges in a collaborative and open. Fashion. That involves input from all members of the committee and. Involve the entire community. I also. I want to. I want to. I want to contribute my. Years of expertise. And the work that I'm doing with the. MMA and try and coordinate. The work that I'm doing with the MMA as I have in the past. With what our goals are. As a committee and as a council. I think that it is getting to a point where. I need to start working with somebody. Very closely. His vice chair. With the hope that. A year from now we can begin. We can do a segue. And get somebody new. Involved in the chair role. Well, there's. A second year. Of my current term. So. Those are the reasons that I accepted. And I thank Bernie for the nomination. Alicia. Can you hear us? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay. Alicia informed me earlier that she has laryngitis. And so. We can't expect that she's going to talk much. But she is here. And Alicia, we've gone through the nomination process for the nomination process. And so. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The position of chair. Two people have been nominated. Andy Steinberg and Bob. Both have accepted the nomination. And we are in the process of. Providing information. Each candidate is allowed to speak. Is there anything you wanted to add before we move on? Since we did move from nominations. We'll vote after we get done with the speeches. I know that's it. Thank you. Okay. Bob Hedner. Well, I don't have much to say. I respect Andy a lot. And I don't want Andy. I don't want you to feel that this is something where I'm. Running against you in that sense. I accepted the nomination because I have been on the finance committee for this is my fifth year. And I think I have an understanding of how it works. And I think I have an understanding of the town's finances. And I would like to. Help steward the town through this difficult. Financial. Period that Andy. Mentioned. I can't. Anyway, I. I will be willing to work. Hard. And I'll be willing to. Be open to suggestions as to how we can make things more. We can make the finance committee more effective as we go forward. Thank you. Thank you. So in the voting, it's actually in this case, only the five counselors who actually votes. Count. However, I will be calling the vote. To determine their concurrence one way or another. So I'm going to begin and go alphabetically. Counselor Hanna key. I vote for Bob Hagner. Bob Hagner. I vote for Bob. Kathy Shane. I vote for Bob. Hagner. Andy Steinberg. I vote for Andy Steinberg. Alicia Walker. I'm going to abstain. I think this is a really hard decision. Thank you. Okay. Bernie Kubia. I've nominated Andy. I have no qualms with with Bob or his. His abilities. But I think. You know, I go back. Go ways with Andy. I'm going to. I'm going to abstain. I think this is a really hard decision. I go back. Go ways with Andy. And I, I know his, his ability. And I. Would. Urge folks to. Reverse events. Matt Holloway. I support Andy. Okay. At this point of the voting members, we have three for Bob Hagner. One for Steinberg, one abstain. And two counts to non-voting residents. Who have supported Andy Steinberg. So it's Bob Hagner is chair and I'm turning the meeting over to you, Bob, for the position of vice chair. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the support and Andy. I really hope we can work closely together over the next few weeks and few months to really make a transition. And I'm going to lean a lot on your knowledge. And experience. So the election then for the vice chair. We'll begin. I guess we first want to do nominations. So if anyone wants to provide a nomination, please do so. Mandy. I'm going to nominate Matt Holloway. Am I. Am I able to do that? That's a very good question. Um, I don't, unless someone can come up with something in the rules that says vice chairs have to be. Um, members of the council, I don't know of anything that prevents it. No, there's no prohibition. Matt, if you want to accept, you can accept. Matt, do you accept? Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Um, Councillor Haneke. I'm going to struggle with who is councillor. Who's first name, by the way, just so bear, please bear with me. Okay. Are there any other nominations for vice chair? Oh, I'm sorry, Bob, you're doing that. Yeah, sorry. I'm going to enter the name of Kathy Shane in as nomination. Kathy, do you accept? I do. I do accept. I'm not getting married. Is there any other, any other nominations? Okay. Then again, only the five counselors can vote. In the two non voting members. I will pull you to. Point of order. If you can allow the candidates, the two candidates to make statements and then committee members can make statements if they wish. I'm sorry. You're right. So, uh, why don't we go just in, in the order that nomination Matt, if you want to make a statement. Sure. Well, I just, um, I'm grateful for the nomination. I didn't expect it. So I, I really appreciate the recognition. And I would, um, I would just say that vice chair is a workforce position. You know, although, uh, Kathy comes in with a wealth of experience and may wind up getting my support. I have to think about it for a minute. Or for as long as I have to think about it. Um, you know, I, I know. For myself that I've served with, with you for three, uh, three plus years, Bob, and, and I think we could work pretty well together and, you know, um, vitally, I have really close relationships with both Kathy and Andy. So, um, I think, you know, I would be one more person leaning on the two of them for me to do it. Should I, should I, so attain that position? Okay. Thanks. Um, Kathy, do you want to say anything? Uh, yeah, I'll just say a few words. Um, I would like to do this for one more year. I have been vice chair and, um, you know, in part because I have a range of things. I think we really need to get done and with Bob as chair, I'd hope to be able to work with him. And now, uh, now that Sandy pooler is on our screen, um, we, we have a tough year ahead of us. And I think we need to be, um, more, uh, in, in advance in terms of not just waiting for things to come to our agenda, but pushing the agenda a bit more. And I'd like to help do that and take on some of the workload as people know, I, I seem to have an analyst capacity to work. So, uh, thank you for the nomination. Does, uh, does anyone else want to make a statement? Maybe Joe or councilor Hanneke. Thank you. Um, my statement's going to be a neutral one. I nominated Matt, but I also support Kathy. I think either candidate could do an excellent job as vice chair. Um, and so I just wanted to, to recognize that I think we have many capable people able and willing to do vice chair, um, no matter which way this goes. Um, and I thought nominating more than one person was a way to make that recognition that, that our finance committee is well served with people who can serve in leadership roles. Andy. I would like to hear from Matt if, uh, if he's willing to make a statement. Sure. Um, Let me see. So I think the, what I've observed is that the vice chair role plays a really integral process role between meetings. And, you know, in terms of helping to get sort of promises met, things that were made, you know, during meetings, you know, we'll get the, we'll get the minutes, you know, cleaned up. We'll get the, uh, the carryover memo, um, distributed things like things like that, I think is, is our sort of essential to this, um, vice chair role. And you know, I mean, I think that's sort of my, my background is in, um, keeping administrative wheels turning, you know, whether it's professionally or in a volunteer capacity, we just, uh, we just cranked out, you know, another 62 medium to small grants for the cultural council. And I think, I think I work pretty well with town staff and with other, um, you know, folks who are in service roles to, uh, as I said, keep the wheels turning, keep the lights on. Um, so I'd be happy to do that work. And then of course, most of you here are aware, I ran for a council or counselor this past year. And, um, you know, I think that finance has been a key part of a learning experience for me in terms of understanding how Amherst sort of, you know, runs its government and supporting the town manager and his staff in doing that. So I think this would be, you know, a really nice, um, compliment to the learning that I've done. Uh, and I have, I think hopefully a reputation for being, you know, very inclusive in terms of reaching out to, you know, all the various groups and sort of interested parties across town. So, uh, you know, if I was elected for the role, I'd be, you know, um, happy to fulfill it. And I think I could do it well. And I would continue to lean on my friend, Kathy, um, for very advice. Should I be so lucky or unlucky as to get the role? Anyone else want to make a statement? Okay, then, uh, we'll go forward with the vote. I think we started with, uh, councilor Hennigy last time. So we'll start with myself. Um, I vote for Kathy Shane. Next would be Kathy. I vote for Kathy. Andy. I vote for Matt. Alicia. I'm still sorry. I am having a hard time with this one as well. Um, I think, you know, Kathy has done a great job and I think that she would continue to do a great job. And I also, you know, always advocate for, for new voices. And I think it would be really interesting to have a community member serve in a position of leadership. I'm so sorry. My voice is really not there. Um, so with that being said, I'm going to abstain again, but I just want to, you know, put my support out there for both of the, uh, people who have been nominated. Okay. Thank you. Uh, councilor Hennigy. I want to echo everything that Alicia just said, um, with that said, I'm going to vote for Kathy. Okay. And, uh, Bernie, uh, would you support? Well, you know, it's, I think at this point, Kathy is the nominee. I'm happy about that. I would have, I would have, it will happily support that. Um, you know, I think we're going to make some changes. We need to make some changes and, um, you know, there's a lot of capabilities on the committee. So I'm comfortable with, uh, with, with most of the members taking the leadership role. So, but, you know, I will lean towards Matt. Okay. And Matt. I'll support Matt. Okay. So, um, so we have all the voting members. There are three for Kathy Shane, uh, one for Matt and one abstention and from the two non-voting members, we have support for, both have supported Matt. So Kathy is the, uh, new vice chair. Congratulations, Kathy. Anyone else have any comments before we move forward? Um, Thank you, Bob. I actually, uh, Sina, would you put me in the audience, please? Thank you. Okay. So the, the next item on our agenda is the 2020 meeting schedule. Right now, uh, let me see if I can, can I, uh, Can I pull that up, Athena? You should be able to share your screen. Um, I can also pull it up if that's easier. That would be easier for me. Thank you. So the, the meeting, uh, that we have the meeting schedule is basically, um, every other week. From now until, uh, a year from now, um, or closer year from now, I do think that we will need to put supplemental meetings in the June timeframe because that's when we'll be reviewing the town budget. And we typically have done two meetings a week at that time. And we may have to extend our hours, uh, if that works for people. Um, so as we get closer to those, that period of time, I will pull people to see what makes sense in terms of additional, uh, days to meet. Um, also, uh, typically in August and September, we've had a lighter schedule, um, because in July, uh, because, uh, of the annual budget cycle. But again, we'll have to wait and see what happens in terms of, um, any changes that are made in the, in the financial, uh, in the financial schedule. And, um, other things that may come up. So does anyone have any comments on this schedule as we, as we have it laid out? Councilor Hanneke. Yeah. Um, my comments are similar to yours. Um, the June 18th empty date struck me as very strange. I don't know whether it was just an accident. Um, that's complete middle of budget season and budget might not even be passed yet. Um, so it seems odd that we would be skipping a meeting in June, um, beyond all the ones that we normally have in May for budget purposes. Um, the, the other one is July 2nd. The budget would be passed by then. I, I always though, um, it's not an ideal time no matter what because of the holiday on the 4th. I always like to err on the cautious side of putting a meeting on an agenda so that everyone's got it in their calendar and then canceling it. If it's not necessary. Um, and so I would probably advocate putting a July 2nd meeting on, um, or whatever's the third Tuesday after July 18th, maybe, um, June 18th if people didn't want the second, but, um, with the potential of recognizing that if the budget is passed in late June on the 24th or whatever, we probably don't need a meeting July 2nd. Um, but I always like to be cautious. Um, I have finance committee on June 18 on my, on my calendar with all the committees. I think it was just an error that I left it off. Um, but I didn't have a meeting scheduled July 2. I think I was thinking that the 4th or July holiday would be that weekend. So that's why I left that date off. Yeah, we can, we can, we can. Adjust this, this schedule as we go. Kathy, did you want to make a comment? Yeah. Um, I don't have a comment on any more adjustments than Mandy just did, but with, with Sandy pooler joining the town and the capacity does, and I know he knows the big capital projects, I would want to make sure as we get into this calendar year that we can really focus on a DPW fire station, the big capital projects and talk about the money. So it may be by adding one or two of those states. If we have a breather where, where other things aren't crowding them. So I think it's a good idea to have them on our calendars and then to think through when that makes the most sense. I'm not saying either July 2, which was is an interesting time to think of large capital projects, but in any case, um, we got this past year, the fall got incredibly busy and squeezed out time. So trying to think of, you know, the first half of the year. So I think this is a good schedule is the long winter way, but, but saying at least one of the agenda setting, trying to leave the agendas open for a longer discussion. Thank you. Andy. I guess that I am. I. I am just, um, I think perhaps we need to encourage that we give thought. Immediately to the additional meetings that we know we're going to need between May 1st and middle of. Because we know that the charter. Provides that. days to review the budget and make our recommendations to the council. We know how much work that it has been in the past to do that. I would support having a discussion amongst the committee at the earliest possible time about whether we want to restructure how we are going to do the budget or whether we're going to adhere to the budget review as we have in the past. We began to have that discussion at one of our media meetings at the end of the last session of the town council. So but I just don't think that there's enough no matter what we do, we are going to need more meetings. And I think that it is not wise to wait to schedule those meetings because talk about it's something that needs to be on the schedule that heavy a period of time we really need the schedule solidified. OK, so we we certainly should be able to put additional Tuesdays at this time. I presume I presume that works for everyone. The question is what other days of the week would we want to schedule? Because we typically do two two meetings a week. So I guess what is May 28th? Is that a holiday weekend set after the I don't have a calendar up and from me? I don't believe so. OK. So what about I have a request. It's not it's not specific to any particular date. I would just ask if it's possible. And if it creates a burden, don't do it, Athena. But if it's possible to get the Google Calendar events created, doesn't need the zoom links or anything, but just placeholders for the for this whole schedule that's incredibly helpful to me just because my my calendar is like a shifting thing constantly on your outlook calendar. Whatever software device you're using to to create calendar events, I can work with you offline to figure that out. OK, so we're so typically we've tried to for Thursday or Friday to be the second meeting of a week. It would does that work? Does that work? Is there anyone who can't do a Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon Councilor Haneke? I'll try to answer that question and then also a suggestion. Thursday afternoons might be problematic, depending on when they're scheduled to end. But if I have enough notice, I might be able to work around some carpool schedules for me, but Friday afternoons are generally fine for me. But I guess one of my comments was I like that we're putting in all the Tuesdays in May because the budget report for finance has to be back 30 days. So basically by the end of May, it needs to be back at the Council. So May is the tough month, although because of the capital plan and stuff, we might need a couple more in June. But if we have the conversation that Andy suggests, which I wholeheartedly support about how we review the budget and whether there's a more efficient or different way of doing it that doesn't require it all to be done in May for whatever reason, maybe we don't have to put so many meanings in yet if we have that conversation in the next month or so, where we can talk about how we want to review sort of a budget and a schedule for department review and stuff like that. OK, Alicia. I could make either a Thursday or Friday work, but it just depends on the timing. So I'm just wondering when you say after noon, what time exactly do you mean? Well, I don't I can I can meet any time. So I'm I'm retired. So it's really up to people on the committee in terms of I mean, what time would work? I mean, we can we can try to start earlier. Does that work for people? Well, I mean, I'm retired, too. But that doesn't mean I'm I'm always unscheduled on Tuesday, if we're going to meet Tuesday afternoons, if we could end prior to five o'clock, that would be preferable. It's not a mandatory, but it would be preferable. If we're going to meet Thursdays, then again, let's wrap it up by five. If we can't, that's OK. But Thursday happens to be a day when a number of the activities that I participated and have landed on for some strange reason. So ending in five o'clock is a favor to me. Fridays tend to be unscheduled. I would prefer mornings, but afternoons do work. And again, let's wrap it up early enough in the in the in the evening or to to allow for some downtime and other other things as the days get longer. OK, thanks, Andy. Yeah, I just want to point out the other committee that I'm on, which is TSO, is meeting on Thursdays at 10 in the morning. And so if we're meeting at two, it's certainly not a problem. If it's earlier than two, it could be an overage in one meeting or no time in between meetings, which is always difficult. So that's the only thought that I have about that really will involve a very small number of days with us that possible overlap. But because we're really talking about one month out of a year, but I thought I pointed out, OK, Alisha, do you would would an earlier start like on a Thursday at one work for you? Yes, I could do Thursday. I'd be finishing up around one so like one 30 would be better. But I could also make a Friday morning work as long as it's not conflicting with the elementary school building committee meeting. So that's also an option. OK. So we got a lot of dates floating around here. What about Friday mornings? Would that work better for people? Anyone not able to make Friday mornings? Is Paul here, Paul, for the staff? Would Friday mornings work? Typically, staff prefer mornings, Friday mornings and Friday afternoons. Friday afternoons can be difficult for staff. And, you know, I think if you did it later in the morning, like I get 10 o'clock, I often have, you know, we have events that begin at 8 or 8 30 in the morning, most likely. But I think, I mean, Holly and Jen can weigh in as well. Do you have a preference, Holly or Jen? My schedules for Fridays are OK in the mornings. That's Holly. The only thing I have is school building committee for that monthly meeting. They usually end by 10. Yeah. Yeah, great. That's our input. Thank you for asking, Bob. OK. Sure. So why don't we tentatively schedule our Friday mornings in May from, well, let's let's say 10 to one. And that'll give us a little bit more time although it gets into lunchtime. But again, we can we can go back and take a look at these as we get closer. But if people want to get it in their calendars. Bob, all four, let's see one, too. There's five Fridays in May. Would you like me to put in all five Fridays? Yeah, we may need because the last one is going to be the thirty first, right? Someone should someone should ask Athena about her. Since she's she's been known to send out notices on the weekend and stuff like that. So I'm going to make it work for you, Bernie. Thank you for asking. In the other just being selfish for me doing after photography, April and May are like prime times. So if we're going to have these meetings, you know, when the schedule is up, let's make sure that they're they're fairly firm and that everyone shows up for them. Otherwise, I'm going to be grumpy. Well, if there's anybody who can't make. The additional meetings, let me know. And we'll we'll come back and and take a look at this. But yeah, I do think we need to. We'll need the last day every day in May we can get because we may have to finish up a report. I'm going to clean this up for you. OK. But if you want to, Cathy has a hand up. But if you want to vote on it as it is, and then I'll clean it up before I post it. OK, Cathy. I'm fine with what we just did. But as Alicia mentioned, we have elementary school building committee and also, you know, we'll be done by 10 in the morning, but it's a big day and that's only May 17th. That's the only day. So right now, I think leaving it just as you've done. But I think if if it's possible not to do May 17th or when we get to the end of April, if we say May 17th could start 11 because we're only meeting once we're only meeting once a month. So I don't want to and I share that so I can't actually leave early. Now, that's fine. Yeah. So that was just that's that that is the one I just was checking. We were only meeting once a month so that just yellow shade that or whatever for the time. Do you want to take it out? Do you want me to remove this, Cathy? No, I think it's OK. I'm just saying, you know, if it's that would start, you know, I hate to micromanage right now if that started more like 11 to to make sure if we go till 10 30, we're not overlapping. But when we really take a look at this, maybe we want to bunch up some of the department meetings and have a longer meeting some mornings. So Bob has said 10 to one. So we get more done on one of the Fridays so we can schedule. We can manage this schedule more in April is what I'm thinking. You know, as we think about how we're going to do it. Yeah. Yeah, we can't. I mean, I can't think that far ahead anyway. So yeah, I'm just I'm just flagging for everyone. That's the one what Alicia mentioned. That's the one that's the only school committee, many building committee meeting that month. OK. So I'm hearing this is OK. Yep. OK, any other comments on this schedule? OK, so I guess we have only a motion to Athena will probably see it. But the May 10th time. Thank you. At 1 a.m., OK, so I guess we need a motion to. Adopt adopt this schedule. So moved Kathy. Second Panicky. So go through. So we'll start with Matt. Is Matt still there? Maybe you can come back to Matt and Bernie. It's fine. Kathy. Yes. Andy. Yes. Alicia. Yes. Councilor Hattacky. Hi. Works for me on the yes. Matt. Support. OK, you support that. So we have five. Everyone that's unanimous. Five councillors voting yes and two resident members supporting. So as I say, we'll come back and we'll take a look at the calendar as we move forward. The next item on the agenda is review of carryover items. Andy, do you want to kind of set the stage for this? Because I'm not quite sure what we can review. The only looks like one that we can actually get started on. The rest are kind of we're kind of waiting for others. But did you have some thoughts about. What we want to do or how we should take these on? You might have a copy of the carryover memo available to put on the screen. But the issue that comes up to me that we could work on without relying on any other MIDI is the surplus property, which was a policy that we really did not get an opportunity to spend much time on and early in the year would make sense. The question of the rental registration, I would for to Mandy is to what she thinks about the timing of discussion of the financial piece that we're talking about in this committee, which is really the fee structure and whether the fee structure is generating sufficient funds. So I hope that Mandy has some as far as the questions of some of the policies like waste hauler and the financial implications of the lighting policy. Those are things that are really working with staff. Making recommendations to TSO and then when we get a little bit of a better sense of how they're going, this committee will be in a better position to take up with the financial implications of what is recommended on those two policies. I think those were the major things were in there. Did I miss anything, Athena? There's the waste hauler to Andy. I mentioned waste hauler along with that. I mean, when I said that both we're relying on staff making recommendations to TSO and TSO, making a formulating something that we'll have to look at the financial aspects of. The other one that's on the list and it's waiting also for a charge is reparations. Reparations. The cash flow. So but but I think what you said at the offset, Andy, was, you know, the one we could, if we want to put it on agenda for the next meeting is surplus properties. It's I've been, you know, if we, particularly if we get our heads around what has already the draft, the draft revised draft, but I had a series of comments I wanted to make on that and then maybe we could put it on the next agenda for the next meeting. Kathy, if you send me your comments, I have some other comments from a previous meeting when it was discussed, and I can incorporate all of those into a new draft for the next meeting. OK. And some of mine are more larger conceptual, Athena, so rather than an edit of the edits, I'll do it as a memo and, you know, sort of. But but yes, I'll do I'll do both. We'll do. OK, great. Thank you. And I think in as far as the reparations is concerned, Paul might give guidance to us on what we might hear back from AP law. There was a series of questions that we were presenting that were coupled with suggest questions that were posed by GOL in its review of other aspects of the proposal. So I think we were looking on that because we need to then come back to the financial structure. The options that they recommended and how we're going to comment on those. Yes, many. Council Haneke. Yeah, to update on rental registration, the earliest would be February 6th on CRC meets on Tuesdays, right now alternating with finance in terms of which weeks. So we're waiting for the agenda to be posted for the 30th. So I can't tell you. I know rental registration is on there. I do not know whether debate on it is so that it might get to a vote. So I would say more likely the 20th if there are potential recommended changes. It is unclear at this point, whether CRC will recommend any changes to the fee schedule. It has not discussed the fee schedule requests that have been made by councillors yet. So I I do not know the referral was just to CRC. It was not to refer back to finance. So it will be up to the chair to truly decide how that returns to the council or not. OK, so we may we may be able to talk about that on the 6th or maybe the 20th then. OK, I think yeah, I think I agree that we should try to talk about the surplus property at our next meeting. It is is do we have an inventory of the surplus property? Paul, do we or Paul, do we have an inventory at this point? Yeah, we have an inventory. We have a draft surplus property policy. Dave Zomek was the staff person leading that so I can talk with him about seeing if he's prepared to attend your next meeting. Yeah, it would be good. It'd be good to to have a sense of what the I know that some things are like Wildwood is going to be surplus, not now, but at some point in the future. And so it would be helpful to have both kind of a current inventory and then the expected in the next five, five years or so. Yes, I think what he would probably update you on is, you know, where we are with Hickory Ridge with, you know, we know we have identified you've identified Wildwood, but also the South Amherst School. Right, right. OK. Thank you, Bob. I just wanted to note at this point that the policy was a recommendation for a finance committee to be updated. There is not an impending property that we're asking the council to surplus at this point. Right, right. No, no, no, I understood that. I just it's always helpful to, for me, at least to see, you know, what are we talking about? What, you know, how many properties are we talking about right now? And, you know, what, what, what do they involve, you know? So and I would just like to know that Wildwood is still owned and controlled by the school committee until they access it. Then that's really not our property. If they can continue to use it as a school function, that's up to them. That's right. That's correct. OK. Does anyone else have any other comments on this? OK, the next item on the agenda is the update of the FY 25 projections. Paul, were you going to speak about that? Yes, I am. So we don't have that updated. We got information, you know, we have the governor's budget that should come out tomorrow, I believe. And we also have not we've seen the range that Maya has given for health insurance increases. We have not seen our particular increases. We expect to see that in the first week of February, I'm hoping. So after we get those two major numbers, then that's where the project that Sandy will help us with as well in looking at those projections. OK, and that moving on, then we'll go to the if I may relate it to that. Paul, do we have any information on how we're going to be impacted by the governor's 21 C cuts? We have not seen any impact on the town at this point in time, especially hitting statewide budget statewide accounts and also earmarks. But I haven't heard anything from our state legislators about what earmarks they if any of our earmarks are affected. Thank you. OK, any other? Councilor Hanneke. Yeah, thank you. The Maya range was up to approximately, I think, 10 percent on an insurance health insurance and our budget has 12 percent. Is that correct? So we're going to be looking to potentially with some additional revenue. Well, it's not really revenue, but lower expenses. I guess. Yeah. So so with that, I know you don't have any updated projections now. Do you think between what the governor announced for Aga and the additional, you know, funding with that and their projections, do you think any of the three percent recommendation will change at all? I know your financial indicators presentation had a deficit, but are we looking at and, you know, where are you thinking right now? I guess with these big numbers. So I'm not we don't want to speculate on that, Mandy. I know you're interested, but you're right that we had put projected 12 percent for health insurance. They say the maximum is going to be nine point nine five percent. We also have to look in the number of people who are being covered. We have to do all the payroll, all the payroll projections on that. So it's not a flat percentage increase. It's also how many family plans, how many individual plans. We have to project that all out. So that takes a bit of time. Any other comments? OK, the next item is the first quarter report, which we have received. And I don't know, is Holly, are you going to pause? How are we going to put it together? So thank you, Holly, for pulling it together. It comes out a really busy time of year for accounting. So well, I'm going to say that Sonia Aldrich helped a lot with pulling this one together, because I'm in the midst of multiple, multiple, multiple projects going on, including budget being the most important one. So I I understand from Sonia that in the past, the first quarter report has has mostly just sort of been given and not a lot of discussion on it because it is very preliminary. There are a lot of things that happen in the first quarter or don't happen in the first quarter. So in in many departments, there will be very, very large encumbrances for the entire year that get posted right at the beginning of the year or in some departments, most of their expenses are later on in the year. So the first quarter report is, you know, is certainly important, but it's not as important as the others, because a lot of things are really based on timing at this point. At the beginning of the year, we may do all of our transfers and put in large encumbrances in certain departments, which will make them look like they're already sort of out of whack and or or overspent, which is really just a timing issue. So right now, I guess sort of the most important things to look at is is is how do I want to say it is really just that this is a lot of the stuff is just projected at this point. You will see some large encumbrances in some places that may not be used till later on in the year. I guess I'm really just wondering if anybody has questions on it because a lot of this information and a lot of this is really just based on timing. Like motor vehicle excise tax bills won't be going out until February. So the majority of that collection won't happen till later on in the year. Right now, the investment income looks pretty high, but that may be that one CD came in with a with a with a rather large rate early in the year, that's not going to continue for the remainder of the year. So the and, you know, things like pools and Cherry Hill, they won't be really starting back up again until spring. So even though they may look a little bit high now, that's simply because they were in operation during the first quarter. They're not going to have as much activity in the second and third quarter. And then that activity will pick up again in the fourth quarter. So I guess does anybody have any questions? Any. Yeah, I guess the one concern that I have looking at it, unless you can give some explanation is recreation because we get a lot of our revenue comes from the summer camp programs. But they go into revolving funds before they reach the budget itself. So I don't know how to take that number, but I was just concerned about that particular item as I went through the list. Yes. And so the the vast majority of wrecks revenue is through the revolving funds. They do pay an administrative fee back to the town. I'm sorry. Are you looking on the revenue side or the expenditure side? I'm looking on the revenue side, revenue side. Yes. So that the administrative reimbursement has not been processed yet. Yeah, thank you. Bernie, yeah, it's thank you. I think it's important to remember that none of this most of the budget doesn't get expended at one 12th increments. Refresh my memory on the on the state aid and how that schedule works again. Is it the cherry sheets revenue is purely quarterly? Most of the state aid comes in monthly, but there are some categories of state aid that only come in quarterly. So state aid is one where it usually is pretty close to the one 12th increment because almost all of our payments are either monthly or quarterly. OK, none of that. That's reliable enough and sufficient enough that we don't have to do any burrowing, anticipating revenue. No, no. So I I had one question about parking permits. What's the sort of the annual pattern of what when people are getting the parking permits? Do you get a lot in like August, September? And then it tails off because I notice it's just in revenues were already at like forty five percent, forty six percent for license permits. And I just wondered what the the kind of pattern was. So on parking permits, the parking permit system here in Amherst runs on the school year, so it is they are renewed in September. So we will get a lot more revenue at the beginning of the year. Most people get their permit for the nine month period and then don't go again for the next year. Right, right. That's what I figured. Any other questions? OK. I think. Well, thank you. Absolutely. Kathy, at the end of Bob, I have one not specifically on the quarterly, but more so, I understand when because I saw there was a proposal of the governor's level to potentially allow towns to control more of the excise tax. How much what part of the excise tax on cars do we keep now? Just when when when we residents pay, does all of that come to the town? It all comes. OK. Thank you if I'm wrong, Jen. But yes, we get all the revenue on excise tax. We do. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. And there is a there is a proposal that I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was no, I was just going to say there's a proposal to increase the well to allow towns to increase the meals tax and the hotel tax by one percent, one percentage point. Again, it's only a proposal. So but I don't think that that's not going to really affect us or our budget that much, as I recall. We don't have a lot in there. How did you want to say something else? No, I was just going to say that I believe I just saw something on the motor vehicle excise where it's going to be similar to. Meals and hotel tax, where you could do a local option, I think, to get more, but the excise tax still would come to the town. Right. But and I'm not sure that that's final. I did remember just seeing an email about it very recently. Sorry, go ahead. It's the governor's proposal. I mean, it's full back. So yeah, we don't have it yet. Councilor Hanneke. Thank you. A question about the hotel motel revenue. Is that revenue that comes in and fits and starts? And is highly variable because the first quarter reports are showing we've received 51 percent of our budgeted intention. Is that something where in the second quarter we receive a lot? You know, does does it just sort of go in waves or is it more equal throughout the year that we may be under budgeted? So I believe the hotel motel tax is one that is. Off a month. So when we receive it in September, we're receiving June, July and August, which are the summer months and the most popular vacation months. So hotel motel is not. It is it does fluctuate. Those would be the summer months that we received. And we do estimate that fairly conservatively. We do typically come in over. But it is there's also, you know, still recovering from covid, where nobody was going on vacations and hotel motels stuff. So that is that is for the months of. June, July and August, which is the heaviest, the biggest payment, typically. Thank you. Thanks, Bernie. Yeah, the governor has been reminded that she promised no new taxes. Although she didn't promise that somebody else could raise taxes. One of the things I'd look for is a change in the amortization schedule for the vehicle excise because the time that the amortization schedule was done, cars tended to die after three, four years. And now the typical cars on the road for nine. So if there's any opportunity to make changes to gather some additional revenue, then we should take a look at that amortization schedule. I'm not sure that they'll let us do that. But who knows? Also, just my editorializing about hotel motel meals. Cannabis, all that is what I consider to be soft money. And I think it's wise that we we use low estimates in in preparing and projecting those because we don't want to black swan event and it's much nicer to be surprised when you gather in more money than you projected. Thanks, Kathy. This is a question more for the ball and policy and but to the extent UMass is starting to offer catering services off campus. I know we've got a agreement of sorts with them that we get hotel motel for the campus hotel or the part that's not UMass faculty putting somebody up, however, we compute that. But to the extent they are going into off campus competition with others that cater, who and how would we know that's happening? And when would we ever go after it? If it's starting to be a fairly big revenue stream? For example, they were catering Thanksgiving meals. And it's for some of our local folks that may revenue from catering was most of their business for the year for some of the delis to accept UMass goes into competition with them. So it's a question of if it's happening, how do we go and capture it in a friendly way? So that's not new. They've been doing it for before I got here. They've been catering, providing catering services. They've been expanding that, though, and under the new leadership or relatively new leadership in their dining services. It is impactful on our local establishments and also the rulemaking that they put out the university's campus about who they can use as a caterer has impacts our our local establishments. You know, I think we want to make sure that they collect meals tax on meals. Like if you go to dying at the university, they should be collecting meals tax, we want to make sure they're doing that. And so there's and I think they're doing that as far as I can tell they're doing it, but I'm not sure how many people slip through on terms of when they're collecting meals tax or not. You know, they had that conversations for years about the their impact on the local economy by them establishing, you know, expanding their services. So that's a constant battle for us, quite honestly. Yeah, I I realize that. And for those of us who have been around for a long time, books used to be sold downtown and most textbooks and most of them got moved on to the on campus. So I mean, there are a variety of ways where you you masses become its own commercial enterprise. It's so thanks. You know, it's just an observation. You know, I got I did call our assessor because I even got they may have closed it down, but out of the School of Public Health, they were operating hearing aids and come and get your hearing tested here. So I thought you're kidding me, but I'm not sure that is still going on, but I got a mailer to. So I know captioning, it's not easy, but it's it's revenue lost. So for not just us, for our businesses. Yeah. OK. Anyone else have any other comments on the first quarter report? OK, we'll move then to the next item, which is public comment. And I'm opening it up. I think Lynn is the only participant in the only in the audience. So it doesn't look like we have any public comments. I think that's it. Does anyone want to bring up a topic, another topic that. Not reasonably anticipated by the chair. Yeah, I want to express my joy at seeing Sandy smiling face on the screen here. I knew he'd be back. I knew he'd come back. And I'm not clear on the extent of Sandy's role. It's welcome, whatever it is. But if we can get a few a few words about that, for those of us were out of the loop. Bob, it was OK if I respond to that. Yeah, that's fine. OK, yeah. So yeah, we did want to I went to introduce Sandy Puller. For those of you who don't know of him, Sandy was the finance director for the town of Amherst from 2011 to 2016, I believe. Before that, he was the chief financial officer for the city of Newton. After when he left Amherst, he became the deputy town manager for the town of Arlington and then the town manager for the town of Arlington. And when he retired at his retirement party, we started I saw we had the conversation about, hey, what about Amherst? And so with the new year, seeing the status of our search for a new finance director and recognizing the incredible burden that our co-intern finance directors, Jen and Holly, are under. Sandy was gracious enough to after taking a bit of break, come back and sort of provide us some services. We're talking a limited amount. I think if he doesn't need to be in a meeting, it's it's probably best, but he'll come to finance committees meetings as needed. If there's something on the agenda for him. We're looking at about 10 to 15 hours a week. And we're going to play this out by year a little bit. The types of things that we want him to look at are financial projections, which is what we talked about a little bit here. So update our financial projections, working with Jen and Holly on that, looking at our debt schedules, things like that, looking at the four capital projects and how we're financing those projects with the newest reality and the new options that are available to us. Looking, you know, working with running our capital improvement program and of course, working with taking on significant role with the budget. So Sandy's taken on a lot. I'm not sure how much he'll be able to pull in, but he's very efficient in his work and knows the town has great affection for the town. And so, Sid, if you want to introduce yourself yourself, you have to put your microphone thing down, though. Should I talk? Hello, everybody. Yes, so I'm back in Amherst, had my first lunch at Black Sheep. So that was a nice familiar experience. Paul, I think, went through all of the major tasks. Today is my first day of doing this work. So I'm just getting up to speed on some of the numbers, figuring out where the files are and all those things. Much of it will be familiar from when I was here before, but there have been various changes to the budget structure. So also getting up to speed on that. I look forward to working with the committee. I would intend to attend at least some of your meetings although I think I'll work with the chair about what's going to be on your agendas as to what will be appropriate since I am only doing a certain number of hours per week. So trying to spread my time out for what are the priorities and what's most useful to you. Other than that, I like spreadsheets. So it'll be fun getting back into that. I now have a town email, which is poolers at AmherstmAA.gov. I'll also give you my phone number, which is my cell. Let's let's share that out over email, Sandy. Oh, OK, I don't know. Versus public meetings. This is a public meeting. Well, I guess anybody will eventually will hear it, but it was public before. So I will share that with you via email. So if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. Otherwise, I look forward to working with all of you. Well, on behalf of the committee, Sandy, we're very happy that you're here to help us. We can certainly use your help. We have a big a big issue with our common finances over the next couple of years. So I think your experience and your your your willingness to dive into details I think will be very, very helpful to us. And I also enjoy working with spreadsheets. So I'd like to see numbers as do I think a lot of the people on this on this committee. So OK. Anyone, Holly Holly has her hand up. Sorry. See it. I would just like to welcome Sandy and thank him from the bottom of my heart, because I am overwhelmed to see his face today, allowed me to breathe a little bit. So thank you, Sandy. And thank you, Paul, for bringing him back. Keep breathing, Holly, keep breathing. I'm trying. OK. Any other comments? OK, I think we've gone through our agenda. So the meeting is now adjourned at 3.13 p.m. Thank you all. Thanks, everyone.