 Call the meeting of the Arlington finance committee to order first order of business but why don't we just go right to the Hearing for the Arts and Culture Commission This was in our article on committees and commissions Last year or this year we appropriated 35,000 and so Who's going to be speaking for you? We all are but okay Do you want to introduce yourself? Sure I'm Steve Walter Jipsky. I'm the the Treasurer of the Arts and Culture Commission I'm Kristin Canberra-Bagnall. I'm the co-chair of the Arts and Culture Commission, and I'm Stewardy Kedda I'm also co-chair of the Arts and Culture Commission so First Thank you for hearing us tonight. I did want to just start with a word of thanks to Annie LaCour Because she helped us. We're so excited about what we do We would have brought a much longer presentation for you tonight, and we really helped You know helped us select what would be useful for you to hear. So thank you I also say because Kristin and Ira knew just take a very brief time to introduce ourselves and where we're coming from into the Commission because as you know We owe a real debt to the past co-chairs Adrienne Stephanie who presented here before to you who really provided leadership in a It's time of rapid Start-up growth and heard a lot of cats of committees that never worked together before and really led us very wonderfully through a period of infrastructure building and team building that was really necessary for us to get to the point Where we are now, so thank you Can we go to the next slide so Through that period of growth that Steward described ACAC has been given a mandate to grow arts and culture in Arlington arts and culture is part of the town's master plan Which was endorsed by town meeting and Arlington also has an arts and culture action plan which developed through a public process that involved over a thousand citizens who voluntarily came to meetings and contributed to The mandate that is strengthen and grow arts and culture opportunities in Arlington Leading to a thriving arts and cultural life for all And so that's through it was through that process that ACAC was created as an umbrella Organization to work with all the nonprofits in town in arts and culture organizations to amplify their messages and Turn what was a thriving group of individual? organizations artists into a sector that has multiplier effects throughout Yeah Oh sure just to give you a little bit of a sense of us Stuart and I are both in our ACAC roles volunteering in what we also do professionally. So I'm an arts Administrator and producer with over 20 years nationally nationally and locally Creating shared experiences through the arts for communities and Stuart So briefly I have an arts background myself in the distant past but I've had a long marketing communications career in a variety of industries ranging from publishing to tech to academia to tourism I'm now a director of marketing communications at the Arilla Arts Center and Concord working with the town committee and other arts organizations out there as well in my day job And I am returning to Arlington after decades or to Massachusetts after decades away I'm a relatively recent new transplant having been a former cantabrigian and lived in The Midwest for over 20 years. I chose to move back to Arlington Ultimately because of the education and the cultural life and the quality of life that the arts and culture and educational values and the volunteer spirit Provide the quality of life that those provide here. I chose to move here over Cambridge and Somerville and Lexington and Belmont Right away when I came I volunteered for my PTO I volunteered to become a town meeting member and I was there in 2018 when we voted to expand ACAC and really looked at the master plan and the cultural plan And we voted to add all these committees and I was so excited by the plan and the aggressive goals that were stated there That I voted for it and I immediately went and volunteered to do what I could do to help implement the plan and especially fulfill this mandate to grow to Create a distinctive cultural destination that would add to the quality of life of our town So I'm the school committee appointee because that has always been very important to me to connect those aspects of our town as well so all of that's to say I Am not just a dealer. I'm a user. I love this now and what we're going to do for it Yeah, sure go back to the lesson just on the score the point of the bottom Which is that we believe when we hope that you believe that arts and culture is a strategic asset something that differentiates the town from other towns that They compete for us for visitors and for residents and for to keep the folks here and to add to the cultural lives So and we'll come back And I know we're here to to talk about the funding that is provided to The commission at arts and culture In general, but I think it's also important to understand the kind of leverage that We get from this funding In the form of additional fundraising. Well, this chart depicts the the fundraising that we we accomplish on top of town funding And provides a period of some years This year We're approximately 39,000 raised so far either, you know, money in the bank or your bank but and also funds pledged and we're working hard to Raise the additional increment up there and our goal is over $50,000 a year in fundraising, which is quite an achievement But that's That's not the only leverage that we were talking about here Additional leverage is for all the money that's spent on arts and culture These are pretty solid studies have shown that for example for every dollar spent on arts and culture There's a return of about two dollars and thirty cents and one of incremental sales for nearby businesses and anybody who wants to see the study we have the References and the links and so on And also another study shows that If someone comes to an arts and culture related event They tend to spend about a little over $30 on top of whatever the ticket price might be So it's bolstering and boosting the local economy In a way, I think And we have some local businesses who can we're testing to that here. There's one Ape Salhu who runs the Olexon service station who was the recipient of the 2019 Chamber of Commerce business of the year Awards said new customers are coming to them because of the the public art that's Located there and the one of the events that we sponsor is called garage band Bobo's is one of the pre-eminent local realtors saying that prospective home owners come to Arlington because of The vibrancy of the community particularly the arts and culture scene We have another business owners that she chose to locate here because of the support for arts and culture so and you know Ted Paluse is a Very very well known to everyone here's Has a tacit to this being a destination a cultural destination for business so This is probably one of the reasons why Arlington was recognized as the 18th best small city in America On one of the factors was the quality of life, which is Arts and cultures part of it. So there's Getting a lot for the investment We've got the next slide and I'm just Not going to go through any of this in any detail. This is just to give a sense It's it's just things that are going on all the events the The public art that's along the bikeway that's shown that's seen by hundreds of thousands of people the The live arts performances which thousands of people have come to their festivals banners could go on and there's There's a lot more to say about these things, but I think you all probably know many of these things already that this is Arlington is becoming a cultural destination and it's Something to be very proud of and we're proud to be part of it So the numbers We showed you the fundraising before this this shows the balance of it, which is that their expenses as well As this year our budget is a little over $85,000 Most of that is spent on programming whether it be public art and various installations Or cultural events and festivals and like I said, this is the the fundraising pays for most of this The town gives in 30 from 35,000 fundraising exceeds that 40 45,000 $50,000 So that's how we pay for these things and that's why it has become the town that it is So and also you can see that the the revenue the donations come from various sources include individuals businesses grants and so on so Going on to the next one this is for next year we're planning a more fundraising so Going from about 87,000, sorry Yeah, 87,000 to 92,000 that includes the town money Which we're asking for level funding of 35,000 for this upcoming fiscal year And there's commensurate investment of that until the cultural assets which is the public art the events that you can come to and enrich their lives and so on and some decent chunk for marketing because which is essential both to get people out to participate but also for fundraising because until unless you tell a story and people are familiar with what you're doing It's it's a challenge for fundraising. So That is a marketing is a very important part of what we do as well And the marketing is also a significant part of our support of the sector broadly because the marketing costs are Shared across the website and that applies to all the arts and culture organizations in town to promote their activities and efforts through Okay, and this is the final slide. It just shows a three-year projection of fiscal year 21 to 23 which we're planning on increasing fundraising by a reasonable amount Each year both individual and business donations. There's a bump up in the middle in terms of the grants We're looking for that'd be a one-time thing where we feel the need to Get some support to develop a Public art master plan public art being such an important thing of what we do and we'd like to do it in a more planful way so Planting we're thinking of or anticipating Applying for a grant for that 225,000 and that would account for that additional hump in the middle there, but after that And we're also anticipate there'll be level funding from the town in order to help us accomplish the things that We're doing and we hope that you believe also believe it There will be Increases in the public art that's provided the cultural events and Marketing and we're also planning that a little bit more into fundraising because you know you need to invest in some fundraising Increase our game our fundraising games, so to speak so From fiscal year 19 to 23 that Spotted-year period We anticipate that the fundraising will which does not include him funding will increase by 69% That's all I have so we have happy to answer any questions We're gonna need the other participants want to add something to this Questions We have committed we have written So the so this shows a greater Delta than the grass show Because of that of the 13,000 remaining to be raised We have we're in conversation So those are not pledges, but they are Because of the way the weather works our calendar is from voted toward the spring So we so we have an annual fundraiser called cheerful that day Drea That has been successful for many years that will happen in June in conjunction with ACA's porch fest We will be part of the townwide yard sale in May We'll have a craft of this year too And we have a house party planned this spring and we will also Collect donations at a number of our live arts events. So we're going to work hard And I don't want to be overconfident, but I would say we're confident. I would add to that We're also participating in some statewide promotion events like art week where we've been increasingly reaching out to other businesses To Some of these higher profile events With us as well as I mean last year we were able to successfully take some of this money Started with and leverage it into partnerships with schools on things like box festival parade and so forth. So that's Again, it's it is seasonal But there are more than there are multiple strategies we're pursuing to try to hit this aggressive so You're running behind on spending in a couple of crucial categories You've spent nothing on the website and you've only spent $5 on fundraising Do you want to talk a little bit about whether you plan to spend that money in the next four months? Yes It's always a little bit of a fire drill towards the end of the fiscal year Keeping in mind that what a good chunk of the spending is whether dependent in terms of the spring coming on We have these public performances and we give stipends to the artists who perform And that's a that's a chunk of money right there. And I think you've got some other Commentary on the website well the website we One of the elements of the website is the linkage to arts Boston calendar which is a region-wide cultural event calendar and we subscribe to that and we get a content-specific Application associated with that and we pay a fee for that and that always is late and coming in So that's another asset and that it goes under the website. How much is that fee? That's 15 So yes, all of this money is is planned very specifically to be spent by June 30 Yes, we have I I didn't do the math precisely, but I think over 90% of our events are in May and June Yeah, it was less worried about the events Which I know are lucky and then the fact that it looked like fundraising was low but fundraising spending was also low So I was just concerned that there was a plan. Yes with cheerful and the house party and the yard sale yet to come You know, there'll be signs for the yard sale. There'll be there are some upfront costs associated with cheerful dollars on Yeah, I can also speak to the website a bit We are currently going through an audit of all not just the website artsarlington.org But all of the interrelated properties and our MailChimp newsletter platform our social media channels again the API that we Buy from arts Boston. We are we are taking in commentary now on the usability of the site and planned expansion To different features of the website So that will account for some of the development time that we're looking to do As a lot of this program these this increased programming comes online We're going to need to revisit all of that It's also what some of our subcommittees are doing such as the Arlington cultural district. They're looking to develop more So there will be other development costs in the website to keep it growing you mentioned subcommittees And it's probably worth just reiterating that We as an entity are only about two years old and we go back some time, but We're the combination of several other commissions and committees That had previously some which have been separately funded so now we're Operating smoothly and all cylinders Other questions John Assuming the website from the town website Yes, yes, yes, you can also reach it directly artarlington.org Okay, any other questions You know, of course why in 2022 and not in 2021 because we won't be ready to apply for an NDA grant in 2021 It's a scale of branch You would and I'm going to check this with a beer. I think it would be the most significant size grant that ACAC Has applied for in that vein and the federal grants are extremely complicated and We want to do it right and one Both So we really want to be ready and we're working with the Department of Planning and Community Development to get Other questions I just thought it might be worth mentioning that there was also It's also a strategic plan and an operations plan that underpins this budget And if you'd like to see those you can access them through our website as well You absolutely can thank you Stephanie and I also brought a couple copies of any of the strategic plan if anyone's interested It is there is a local map so we would be looking at how so we would be allocating our Raised funds and possibly some of our town funds differently that you're in terms of how we think about our activity Any other questions? Okay, well, thank you very much for coming before us. We really appreciate it. We appreciate the information Appreciate your hard work Okay minutes Okay, does anybody have any Comments or corrections for the minutes, okay Actually didn't either so I know How will Carter next time? Don't forget to take your attendance and again any numbers that are in here from your budgets, please please please double check that Okay, do I have a motion? Okay moved and seconded to accept the minutes as presented I think there were a few comments or corrections, you know over the internet Directly but Okay, all those in favor of accepting the minutes as presented, please say aye post Okay Minutes are accepted. Okay. Um, I want to remind everybody to please Take your conflict of interest test I Get mine today Two three four times. I found I got it I'm sorry to be my score. No, I didn't see a score I just copied your answers, you know So please try to get that ready as soon as you can and then give a copy or email to what to is Charlie Yes, I just thinking about the presentation that we just saw And I'd like to thank Annie for working with this community Not much job Okay, that's great Wednesday we'll be Hearing from the our capital budget committee capital program committee At 7 30 so that usually takes a chunk of time. So if everybody could be here Okay arts and Culture Everybody heard the presentation Last year or for this year We reduced it from 40,000 down to 35 I think the hope was long term that we could you know that they would not become addicted to town money This is saw this as a way of seed money They're requesting 35,000 now. Did everybody get the letter from the manager? Okay, everybody read it. Okay, so the managers for those of you who didn't Continue impressed with their ability to raise private funds, which they are combined with very successful grant writing He's recommending that we vote the amount that's been requested at 35,000 so what is Okay, it's moved in seconded for 35,000 discussion John Oops and After we voted last year reduced the funding and and there was some confusion because they thought well We didn't have to come back and we said, oh, no, you have to come back So I went and I read the minutes and then I also watched Here when we had them And I think that the source of the confusion came from during the part that they were testifying presenting The message they got was well, we'd like to have you present but as long as you have a funding You generally don't have to come back the next year And then they left and then there was a discussion in the finance committee and the finance committee Sort of came to consensus. Well, actually, maybe this should be seed money And maybe we'd like to see the money go down over time and that was what was recorded in the minutes so I think that Maybe when groups come we should say hey, maybe you should watch the discussion afterwards or watch What happens next because I think they were sort of blindsided by this because they didn't Think to watch the minutes. Well, we would think think to watch the rest of the hearing You know, it's just a general comment that I think that we can do a little better and that Okay Good comment. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay, motion has been made and seconded for 35,000 for arts and culture all those in favor, please say aye posed Okay now Let me go through the Committees and commissions since we've just done this Now this is article 62 and All the other committees and commissions Historical commission ever get back to you was Okay, so Liz has contacted all the other committees on the Article 62 We just heard from the one committee That has a fairly large amount of money And So what we should do now what I recommend we do is just go through it and I'll read the committee in the amount for each of them and If anybody would like to hold to discuss it further then say hold, okay, I'll Copy town meeting on this if we get through the whole thing Nobody's whole then I I'll accept one Vote to To do all the committees and commissions Okay, so if you want to discuss anyone John All of them are level Okay Arlington Historic Commission $2,660 and again these are all the same as last year or this year Historic district commissions 5100 capital budget their usual zero committees on disability 25,000 recycling committee 3,000 Human Rights Commission 7500 Arlington tourism and economic development 4275 Envision Arlington 3,000 It's the old vision 2020 Transportation Advisory Committee 2000 scenic byway Commission 2000 open space committee 300 oh LGBTQIA and Rainbow Commission 4,000 the arts and culture we just passed at 35,000 And those are all the committees I can hear a hold or anybody like to make a motion John I probably should have said something about Disabilities John, I'm sorry disabilities Commission on disability 25,000 Okay, we have we have a funding stream for that don't we oh Funding sources property tax No, that was something they wanted to do but we said no I Think we felt at the time that that money should go into the general fund in the the amount should be justified That's correct, Alan Yes, 2000 any other questions Is that in the warrant article Human Rights Commission Disability human resources board My guess is this article has been here for the same article for 30 years and if any game gets new it usually just gets added at the end so I'm not sure what the human resource board is But they didn't ask us for any money Never have I what is that the was Carolyn's not here. Unfortunately, um, there was a board which the human resources director Would make decisions on reclassifications and there'd be a board that would review them For peels is that the board? Yes. Okay. I guess that's it, but they've never asked for anything You know all the heroes a few appeals Okay, is there any other questions? Okay, do I have a motion For the whole article Okay in second second, okay moved and seconded any further discussion Okay, all those in favor, please say aye opposed You'd animus You have a total error No While we go on to the next one if somebody has a calculator could add that up that would be great Okay budgets fire. Okay What page? Okay, where's yours? Not much happening in terms of salaries. I'm going to be recommending the amount that's requested here All contract driven As you can see the percentage Not a lot going on the 1.3% increase in salaries overall expenses However I'm going to be recommending The following increases To two line items one is five two or three repair and maintenance And I'm recommending a three thousand dollar increase That's a twenty twenty one budget and I'll explain what's going on the minute and then to line item five Account five two to four other supplies. I'm recommending a four thousand dollar increase So that that number would have been fourteen thousand dollars and what's going on here is that Chief Kelly had requested a seventeen thousand dollar increase in expenses and That seventeen thousand dollar increase had been approved by the town But the increase was put into the facilities budget not into the fire budget There's was a back-and-forth between Sandy and chief Kelly and Jim Feeney the director of facilities and All parties agreed that Ten thousand of that seventeen thousand dollar increase would stay in the facilities budget But that seven thousand would be transferred from facilities Facilities budget as it's in this book Back to fire So when we get to the facilities budget, we're going to have to Do that, you know commensurate and compensate and decrease to those expense lines Whoever has the facilities budget Christine I have a memo signed by Sandy Okay, can you share that with Christine? I certainly can. Okay, so the change is 3000 1000 to 3000 so 1000 to 4000 for five two or three and from 10,000 to 14000 Five to two four so the bottom line numbers for fire expenses goes from 413 400 to four 2400 for an increase of $5,400 so going from a decrease of 2400 to an increase of 5400 the fire appropriation total for 2021 goes to 799 66025 for an increase of 9987 9 and Then the fire taxation total goes to 7754729 For an increase of 98087. I don't know what those percentages Okay, so is that your motion? Oh I'm sorry Yeah, I'm sorry the increase under fire expenses is 4,600 not That new math Okay, so is that your motion? That's my motion. Is that seconded? Okay. Um, you have anything else? You want to add to this budget? I mean add an informational point of view. I Do not well, I should mention that she Kelly said that they are They are on budget for fiscal year 2020 today Right on track, even though they've had A number of unexpected They're gonna so they expect not to have it They expect not to be questioning reserve fund transfers this year not at this point now Okay discussion questions Okay, the motion has been made and seconded for seven million seven fifty four two twenty nine All those in favor, please say aye Opposed unanimous three two twenty Okay, do you have any other budgets I'm shy The reef yes It's on page 31 That won't receive electronically that we got them this morning Perhaps we'll get them later on these are more of Statistics what we reports that he does to show the stats which we can send it around Once I get the electronics, I'll send that as well I want to start off by mentioning a couple of things before jumping into the numbers and I don't know. This is all information to me good information to me So I'm sharing in terms of what does the IT department actually do So I just think it's it's quite positive. Well, it's information. That's what it does. They have 98% of time They serve 25. They have 25 buildings where there are servers thousand personal computers 150 cellular PDA's over 200 printers 5500 tablets and so forth 125 network switches 25 BIP telephone switches 750 phones 600 wireless access points, etc What I want to mention by that is that they do they do have a lot of infrastructure that they manage and They have about 8,000 pieces of equipment that they manage with 6,000 of it being in the hands of Students and faculty so those are sort of the positive aspects of what they're doing. There are some There's some challenges I'll just mention them at the outset and then I'll get into the budget numbers and so forth the challenges has to do with the building of the high school and And therefore the movement of the infrastructure because effectively most of this infrastructure is based at the high school In order to move these corner works. This is going to be quite a challenge So that's what they graphically The where they want to move it is a DPW building what I understand But that is seven months behind the schedule of the new High school That in itself I need that as as information So that's what they're grappling with and those are the positive pros in the cons and good work that they're doing We met with them this morning Now looking at this page 33 the top And Some of the questions that I had and so I work through those so that perhaps answer some of the questions you Other purchased services five to three six There's a significant bump there of 25,000 this has to do with a security audit cost and Initially, they've been actually applied for this as a grant from Homeland Security But that will take a significant amount of time They're not even sure if it will come through so this needs to be done and this They plan on doing this every two to three years So what he's done is David has allocated 25,000 dollars for that security audit cost Okay, I'm sorry a reef. We're talking about other purchase services. Correct. Yes, okay five two three six. Yep Like I said, he's taken a Estimate Not quite sure whether 25,000 will cover it but that's number one. That's where you see that increase The other piece is five two nine two Network maintenance. I'll go through this and then certainly you can ask me questions after this if you have it Network maintenance This again is an increase This has to do with five hundred plus. I mentioned six hundred access points that he That need to be upgraded also in town meeting. I guess they had decided that everybody should be using electronics and And therefore there was a downfall auditory of network enhancements that were made and so that also adds that component that cost Let's see what else I go down to the other one the glaring one which is five three five three Munis software support You all probably know a lot more about what's been going on in terms of munis over the years or the last couple of years where they've taken on and Move to that system this hundred and twenty thousand is Is really for taking munis and moving it to the cloud One of the questions that we did ask, you know, I was quite shocked actually that With this infrastructure and the building movement and everything else. Why wasn't already everything in the cloud? however It is what it is. This is how they will move and this hundred and twenty thousand is to take munis and move it to the cloud Should point out a couple of other things For those of our home audience and the few non-technical people that might be on this committee. Could you explain that? Yes, of course so effectively software can be Provided in two fashions various fashions. Let's just keep it very simple for the non-technical people But one is just on-premise which means it's on your server in a piece of hardware That's sitting with you and being served out So it's a centralized way of serving this whatever that may be and in this case mulis software Being served out from a central location Which is what they're grappling with because when you move the buildings and the network connections and all that that becomes a challenge When you move something to the cloud Not literally speaking but effectively these are servers that are in the internet cloud and that can be accessed using an internet connection Which I think all of us here use either through a mobile phones or through cable or other network providers So having that ability of having that software served in the cloud so to speak There's a multiple advantages one is all of it is accessible From there in you know from various points. You don't have to go to a centralized server to access it The other is the does the security aspect of it as well as the maintenance aspect of it as well as if your System goes down for example if the building burns down or you're somehow your on-premise server is destroyed Having an in the cloud solution allows you to not worry about that situation because it's already available to you in the cloud So the the maintenance and all that is provided by the host Is providing with the software with the cloud solution and so far now Let it be clear that this sort of it's not just one time put it in the cloud and then all the costs will go down Okay, it'd be a shift in thinking of how this cost is appropriate in in terms of Typical software you buy it you buy a capex and then you do incremental software maintenance optics operation expense capital expense But in terms of software as a service or software in the cloud Yes, you pay a certain amount upfront, but typically you are paying as you go. It's a recurring Amount that you will be paying on a monthly quarterly. However, you negotiate those terms. I hope that's enough of an explanation Okay, any questions is it John and the nail and so So that last point So the budget here of 283,000 for the software support That then continue. Is that essentially You mean an annual fee that you pay for the cloud-based service or no, that's not They don't they don't know that amount as yet. So I don't know if it's going to be as high as that every year but he wasn't here on I believe it will go down some but Okay, yeah, that was one of my questions whether it was going to be a And any other you know moving to the cloud you typically reduce your You know in front premises cost, but they're spending so little for In one premises hardware anyway, there's one savings there Two-quarty informants were still you might know this we're still use them. I thought that was for the old tax system Water and sewer selections are still on the forex. Okay, does that move off? 18 months he said okay. They can't move watches to all They can't You can't we have old leaders in town so some of them are civil leader technology And so you have to sort of a quarter of operations So you have to get everybody off of the old leaders before we could get off of the old Whatever it's called informants system because if you moved To the new system of the old leaders you then have to do it again when you went to the new leaders So it worked out the quickest way even though it's causing this system to last longer than it should And the other question, I'm sorry if I missed this I know there was a this is probably part of the strategic plan Implementation moving everybody on the office through 65 Yes, it's going to happen in the next two to three months Well the Microsoft exchange system will happen in the next two to three months Sorry, and they're looking at office 365 But But they're moving to exchange They're moving to exchange first right the next two to three months Then they've got things to move to the cloud that is when we mentioned the munis and on mail They've got Google and then they've got MD Okay Okay, Brian, I was just going to say that I was in the meeting And He said there would be a significant reduction from the 120 he said but there is a cost They just didn't know what it was, but it should be substantially less than that for making Now will the the security audit will that be more of a one-shot that should be a one-shot and as I mentioned Expecting to do this every two to three years I think in this first time around when he does it you'll have a better idea as to what the real cost is right now it's just 25 grand Everybody work stations How do you define workstation? That does stop that song He said sick eight thousand pieces of equipment six thousand in the hands of students and teachers But then I'm reading this other piece here. It says fifty-five hundred thousand personal computers Okay, are you set Brian One other piece I should mention is in the salary detail. There's a vacant position, but that position has been hired He converted one of the consultants to a full-time position And so the consulting fees or the consulting amount he expects that to To go down He hired the consultant. Yeah, okay, Charlie. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify something after we've mentioned that Surprise that the software was not on the cloud and you may recall that the The finance committee approved approximately 750,000 dollars of MUNIS software expenditures over the last three years that was basically a Big upgrade to get the MUNIS software program away from I don't know Windows XP or something like that to to a more modern platform That's that took a lot of time and a lot of expense and they have completed that but they could not move to the cloud until they got to that New level of software and they are there other questions George Why the water sewer offset didn't change really when It could be of course if we're still on informants for water sewer Maybe that piece didn't typically I would think that it would be supporting some water sewer things that might be increased Looks like the water sewer offset didn't change Which one you're looking at the offsets line. Yeah Can I take that question here? I know the answer. Okay, Dave. So the offsets that appear in the current For the 20-21 budget Are based on the expenses of the prior year and the policy which makes rational sense It's because this budget hasn't been approved. It's subject to change So if we or the time meeting were to make a change We were going to have to go through this whole process of changing all the offsets And so they do a one-year lag on the offset because they know that budget has already been For The first one so that I got it. Okay, George you finished. Yes, okay, Peter Did you give me details on what came out of the security audit? This for next year, what'd you say it hasn't been oh it hasn't happened yet Oh Okay, oh John What so you said maybe office 365 definitely Microsoft exchange Which of those solves that problem so you can go to the technology of 2003 where they send a message and get Microsoft exchange For password security One you can change your own password a lot of recovery things these two factor authentication And there's all sorts of complexity rules. You can get minimal complexity rules You can build in so there's a big stack there Now that doesn't solve the problem of you call somebody and they say sure I'll change your password for you I mean, yeah, okay, that's a human problem So it is exchange for 365 to hire two people get two different answers They're there it's an overall exchange is a subset of 365 Okay, but you said you also said exchange we were gonna get in three weeks and office 365 was at some point in the future I think they would get the exchange license under the context of 365. It's the business essentials package Exchange is like 75% But I think you just said that that's So what's your question Alan mentioned that he thought that when you want to 365 there would be some considerable costs given the number of users But that'll happen over time. It's not that's not happening But it's in this year's budget But once you get on that A number of user per user you'll be paying an annual fee so that will increase over time And Sorry, and John they're also paying now for these other applications they have like Google programs they will they all have feet so there's some a substitution plus plus the start Okay, any other questions John Unis software support is a large number Should it be as big as that Yeah, because they keep you want to pick them. Yeah, go ahead. So the Unis software is principally at the community safety police station here and it's the it's the police servers are separate from the what we call General-purpose commercial servers that the town uses for security reasons and their unit space So to have a separate maintenance budget separate hardware budget Okay The mutus I mean this is like this is business I mean if you have a big software package whether they have an IBM or unis or Any of the large software companies you you buy a big With the big chunk of money you install a basic system, and then you wind up paying 10 or 20 percent a year For continued licensing maintenance Give you an idea Okay, so it's for the It's for the Excuse me That should stay open Okay, are there any other questions on the budget George This sports students and faculty is there give a sense of what the it budget is on the school side Or is this covering a big chunk of the school it If we know it's kind of we think he has at least six people working on The school side that don't show up in the town, but okay. I don't know what the financial number is, but maybe People doing school but there's there's software on the school but inside as well This is like an awfully thin staff Did you take a look at this thing? Did you take a look at the? We sent this around We're saying this is a pin step We were asking for more productivity now that you're spending more on munis and stuff I would say you can cut down the staff by half Okay, other questions There'll be a test on all this by the way Especially what is VoIP stand for? Okay, so what is your recommendation that's printed Recommendation is as printed one million oh sixty five three twenty seven is there a second second Okay, is there any further discussion all those in favor, please say aye posed unanimous and Any why I'm thinking about this with John's comment. Could you at the arts and culture people know our vote? Just shoot them an email or something. Okay Additional budgets Okay, so Again, this was we met with Eda this morning as well What do I want to highlight on this? I mean, this is a Zero zero increase in the extent side of the equation The modest increase on the salary side The one thing that I did ask a question about was the males stipend which is in the salary detail To me it was I didn't know what it was So the explanation is that there is a person who goes to town or collects the mail Distributes checks collects batches for account processing. It's a union person. So effectively you have to be a site It's a modest amount, but that's what it's for Punch more it's for mail pickup. It's for mail pickup. It's for distribution of checks. It's for collecting batches for Accounts process Accounts payment rather and because it's union the person is a union And therefore it's a site so work beyond the job description. It's beyond the job description. Okay. Thank you All right So other so other purchase services You see that it's gone from twenty three fifty five or so number five two three six Okay This is I mean I think what idea is not I think idea is trying to do is really trying to clean up a lot of these other categories and They're saying that instead of having other supplies other purchases, etc Being miscellaneous buckets, she's trying to be much better about classifying it in the right Bucket and so therefore you see the movement from there to other Other places Unis, sorry She's also putting in Yes Say that lovely she's also putting in a new charter accounts over the next 12 months, which will I Don't know if we'll see you all these numbers change probably will but there'll be a lot better organized the budgeting will be cleaner and She'll have more control Thank you, and one other thing that I wanted to point out is if you look at the 2020 budget just any of those the in-state travel out-state travel. What have you one of the things I looked at is the year-to-date spend and Compared and I said well for example You know only small amounts were spent in any of those categories What was explained to me was that these are encumbered For there's some Unis conference as a munis conference coming up in Florida for which there will be out of state travel There'll be that training expense, which is 15,000 that will be used Other than that, I don't have any other comments on this On this budget Okay, so are you recommending as printed? I am recommending it as Okay, is there a second Discussion or questions Is so what is she saying is that the fiscal 2020? Amounts that were appropriated there have been encumbered and they will be spent Okay, motions have made and seconded for 345 999 all those in favor, please say aye. Aye opposed unanimous Okay I did send it out a bunch of documents. I'm sure you all read them thoroughly. So I appreciate that Apologize this was quite late in the day We met with them. I know Dean has a lot of time. Actually, yeah Start with your questions Wait in the end Okay Well in terms of data here, there's not a whole lot as you can see so what I would do is just say I open it up to questions And I will answer them as you and explain every component of that So where should okay, let me start I think 18,000 468 was the first number that I looked at and that was the non-contribute pension and that is One person around Yes, so this is the person who is connecting this I Should name them, but that's where that 18,000 467 468 is As a survivor collecting that pension they had born in 1922. I will not give the name they worked for 20 years at all Another piece of Information is one of the oldest people in our town is a lady named Christine who's 103 I thought that was quite There was another person who's 99 Those are those people are not getting So just for background for people that are new in the committee there are two Pension funds the contributory pension and the non-contributory pension. This is the non-contributory pension and about 15 years ago something like that the retirement board made an agreement with The finance committee that we would at that time this there were more living people Who are members of this non-contributory pension program and the total expenditure amount was about $500,000 a year so we agreed to Spend that money as if it was constant Gonna have to be spent anyway and as As these people aged out passed away from the non-contributory pension point the balance of that would be Contributed that would be deposited in the OPEP other post-employment benefit funds for retired employees for which we have a huge Unfunded liability and we've been doing that for maybe since about fiscal year 2008 and The number has risen at that time was 310,000 now. It's about 481,000 so There is one member still alive in that program, and that's the 18,000 Eventually the amount would be 500,000 a year to OPEP So currently that number to OPEP is 500,000 minus 18,000 460 Letter here from this was sent around Did I mention the PRAT letter? The PRAT letter which mentions the 13,799 108 retirement system so that's split into two pieces right? 13,799 96% of it goes to the town and school That's 13 million to 46,911 and 4% of it goes to the Arlington housing authority Which is five hundred thousand five twenty five five two one ninety-seven about twenty employees The twenty employees in the Arlington housing So that's right, so that's the 13 million to 46,911 for the town and school Is what you're seeing up here in that twenty twenty one budget Okay, are you recommending it as printed? Yes Is there a second? Questions Dean so Underlining the Actuarial valuations a series of assumptions like a discount rate Years of assets moving on gains and losses etc. etc. did Well, do you need to talk to a rich on it, but at least the administrator speaking for their Indicates that they were okay with this course or do you indicate that they were thinking about making any changes? They're not thinking about making any changes. They still anticipate sticking with the 6% per year growth that we negotiated with them Came into effect after the last Overrides that I think was five and a half Right, so then my second point just to confirm it. I don't know if you had to talk about it, but in order for that six percent to work They They go through a Formula of like a pulling in and out The full funding there show a good year as they pull it in Badgers they pull it out knowing they can't go past 4040 kind of the stop wall there So they're okay to continue on that because they do what the period They're still doing the three-year averaging okay, so the so the growth is The the growth in the Funded balance or the decrease in the unfunded balance is is smoothed by the by a three-year roll average, right? Okay, I Think the general consensus Well, it's hard to say it's one person that we're talking to so it's hard to call the general consensus But actually eat it was also it's also unretaring for the view is that You know barring the effects of the coronavirus or whatever other unknowns occur They're they're happy with with the current forecast the one factor that Rich express some concern about was the growth in teachers the number of teachers which which are going to increase the expenses in the plan however they just had a report done by by Larry stone the town's actuary in My observation is that they When he does those reports he takes in the growth of the different departments the people who are aging out into the retirement system in turnover so You know my expectation is that since he didn't recommend a change in the contribution. I think it's And so we didn't we didn't ask specifically by the way if parac knew about the six percent agreement with the town between the retirement board in the town and Rich indicated that they did they were aware of it. It's not a written contract or anything, but they were verbally Just it was disclosed to them and they have signed off on the Other questions any Just to get that off you're on track to fund by the deadline or before the deadline Actually, it's here someplace before the deadline So 2036 basically There hasn't been a whisper about OPEB becoming a requirement yet We had fears in the past that at some point the state government might force us to fund OPEB under the same kind of regime Well, I mean the issue is That the retirement Benefits the health insurance retirement benefits for town employees is not Strictly speaking an obligation of the town that the board of select one could read excuse me the select board could Determined at any time that that wasn't gonna be paid anymore. Therefore. It's not it's not in Some sense of strict liability on the other hand if the if the select board did that Very likely there would be a suit by retirees that would take years to resolve and so Who knows how that would come out? I don't know if this is a statewide View or national view, but the I think it's the GASB the government accounting standards board has come up with a formula and they say that If you fund your OPEB liability At the discount rate of your of the return on your investments Which is around seven and a half percent then No, I said that if you fully fund it, then you can use a discount rate of seven and a half percent and and that would But that would require us to pay an enormous amount, okay, but it would also reduce the total amount of liability since we don't do it we have to calculate the liability using Essentially the town's cost of funds which are about one and a half percent or two percent or something like that Which means that we have a huge unfunded liability and we're somewhere in between in the sense that between this five hundred thousand dollars a year the hundred fifty thousand that we vote from the Selections vote. This is Selections vote plus the three hundred thousand dollars that we'll put in from the insurance Trust fund That we're putting in almost a million dollars a year, and we're probably funding this Budget this a liability more than most of the town's I don't know. I don't I don't find the extra information I just know that at one point we had thought we might actually come under some kind of state regulation about it that currently didn't exist and we were worried but It sounds like we're being responsible and that's all we need to be I think the State knows that the numbers are so staggering That if they you know they'd put municipalities down sometimes if they had to fund them, however If I were the state legislature, I Would look ahead and say as of 2000 as when you are fully funded your pension system At that point you've got to use pick a number 80 percent of the reduction in your appropriate foundation to fund your Open Because otherwise if they wait till they're there they get too close to that number Every mayor or board of select one is going to figure out how to spend that money And in every union so it's something where you've got to do it ahead of time Where nobody in office now anticipates they'd be in office with that happen so that's I've recommended that a few times, but nobody listens Are there any other questions on this? Oh John I like that Yeah, there's a $1,800 difference that It's called it's called out, which is not your coat. It's cost of living $1,800 on the state. Yeah, it's reimbursed by the state. So then that well The difference of 900 Okay Other questions Okay, the motion has been made and seconded for 11 million nine two one two three nine any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye opposed unanimous Three two twenty Any more or if you're on a roll It is and you've been away from it for a few years, so Okay, other people with budgets any budgets for tonight Okay, then what I want to do is go through the warrant and let's see if we can clear out some of the warrant articles We already did it with one Well, okay, let me throw this out for general discussion There is an article To increase the salary or to increase to establish a stipend for the school committee I think the select one have Voted favorably on it, but they sort of anticipate the finance committee is going to take a stand somehow My own initial feeling was As long as they absorb it out of the school budget, that's how they want to spend the money. That's fine However, I don't Anticipate that's what the group who presented this to the select man had in mind Now there's no appropriation required for fiscal 21 But there would be an appropriation required for fiscal 22 So if this gets passed I anticipate there'll be a warrant article there next year to put money in and then it is in our Bailey with So I guess there's two questions. One is should the school committee get a stipend Secondly is Where should that money come from? Should it come from the general fund or should it? Basically, do we take a stand that it should come out of the school budget? if You know you could you could say well the select one stipend comes from the select ones budget and the finance committee stipend from ours and the moderators stipend from the concorps budget, I think and The assessors stipend is in the assessors budget, but of course those have been there for like I Don't know 50 years So have been in there for a while. So If we take the position First of all if we agree that the school committee members should get a stipend That's one thing if we take the position then This money should be found by the school committee in the select in the school budget, which is like 60 or 70 million dollars That would not only be the position this year, but I anticipate next year So I wanted to get some feedback I Don't have it It's back in the select one's articles Article 14 yeah, Charlie so In one sense we We have only one question to ask because whether it comes from the school department budget or whether it comes from the town budget ultimately the taxpayers can pay it and and the way the school budget is Normally treated and I'm not saying this in any pejorative fashion is that there's a certain strong and deserving Interest given to me meeting the requirements of the students of the pupils so What do we what do we be talking about here? $20,000 three seven twenty one thousand twenty one thousand so so if we had a 21,000 to that budget You know and the and we had you know a 4% increase in number of pupils the school committee would say well We have to fund the needs of the new pupils So we would wind up increasing the school budget on top of that 21,000 anyway I think the the argument to keep it on the town side is that It puts the jurisdiction the control of the budget in the hands of town meeting as opposed to in the hands of the school because I think legally once it's Inside the school budget. I don't think how meeting or the finance committee can really say anything about a specific line No, am I right? It's accepted of a special law I think if If we said yes, I think that if we agreed with the selectman's position that the school committee Should be have a stipend You could take the position. Well then but the school committee has to figure out where in its $59 million budget It's going to take the money from in other words. It would have to fund it within the school budget That'd be one way to do it or if we funded it in a warrant article It then became a member part of the school budget that it's it's in the school budget from then on I'm not sure if it stays as a warrant article if anybody any Like we have them a general fund appropriation and then they basically manage that budget without anybody here being able to say anything about it Whereas the selectman's budget runs through us and you know We would know if the selectman suddenly decided they were going to spend, you know, $25,000 giving themselves a raise We might not know that on the school like you're worried about control. Yeah here. Yeah and so if that's a worry and if we think it's a Auditing worry or a legal worry then we should figure that out. I Think that is a separate question from whether or not we think the school committee ought to get a stipend Which I have a opinion about But yeah, I think I kind of agree with you about the control that it has to stay on the town side of the budget simply for our ability to control it Appropriately and not have the people who are receiving this type and folding on whether or not to get it Well, I mean the school budget does come before us and it's a quick thick document and so I anticipate there'd be a line item in there Under salaries Administration for school committee And if there isn't we'd look we'd ask for one Sure Now there'd be I mean one of the big factors in past years has been That elected officials who get a stipend qualify for employee health insurance Now that has apparently changed We get our insurance through GIC State program and GIC will not pay the health insurance of anybody who's not in the pension fund To qualify to be in the pension fund you must be at least five thousand dollars a year So there might be one or two people that are grandfathered but Very few and they'll sort of pass on So new school committee people if they get paid three thousand They would not qualify to be in the pension system and therefore would not qualify for health insurance So that issue at least seems to have gone away and I ran this by the town council a couple of different ways So it seems to me we are talking the three now If we keep it separate we have some control in a warrant article if we Let it go on the school committee budget Theoretically they could bump it up to over five thousand and all of a sudden they're in the pension system and getting health insurance so How to maintain that control was is interesting Just to piggyback on Charlie's issue of control, I do think he's right that it should stay on the town side budget because So they hear that You hear that will change That the threshold went from being elected used to be you're elected and you make a salary or anything To you were elected and you've had at least five thousand dollars we Only board at the time who had a stipend of five thousand or more was the board of Assessors so I Don't remember if you remember Charlie We had a very uncomfortable meeting Charlie and I with the board of Assessors where we asked them to Lower by a dollar so they could get four thousand nine hundred ninety nine right and there was all sorts of threats They were gonna get a town meeting and fight us to the death and call us names and all sorts of things like that But ultimately what they did this is why I think the power of town meetings persuades it is the then chair of the Board of Assessors before we could stand up and defend this Declare that the board of Assessors tonight before had voted to lower their salaries to forty nine And that's why I'm sure if you look in the book It's forty nine hundred because the optics of having to go to town meeting and explain why they were the only board in town Who was going to continue to accrue pension credits and health insurance benefits was not somewhere they wanted to be And I think that that that what bike if you were to keep it on the town side you eliminate All of that sort of I'm just gonna call it nonsense that you could have if it retained in the small budget And yes, I think try to make some very good points David These folks are the three thousand dollars stipend We don't we do not pay the social security. I'm sorry David. We do not pay the social care They pay into a An annuity yeah So That's right, just like it comes out of ours So we can build up this massive retirement fund so The way to maintain your control is next year when this comes up is to have a warrant article that has the school committee stipend So I guess the first question is why don't we take a step back? How do people feel about the school committee getting a stipend? Okay, Peter. I have a question Does anybody know who Krista Kelleher is? Do you have an idea what our motivation I think we're dealing with an issue However, it was brought up you remember a former school committee member brought this up Many years ago Actually, it was it was a former school committee member and at that point we decided not to I think largely because of the health insurance issue any Should get a stipend Mean they're the only elected board that doesn't they certainly put in as much time as the assessors in the board of Slechman if not more so I Support this article do you want me to make that motion and see what's going on or do you want to keep Okay, why don't we see anybody? Okay, if you like to make a motion go ahead I move that we support this article Okay, so it's made up and made in seconded to support a $3,000 stipend for each member of the school committee Is that your motion? Discussion That was well, I think we have to say is that a second line in the school budget, you know A big number and a little number was a separate board article whatever you know We can figure that out next year, but I think in the comments this year. We should indicate we want it to be open and transparent and independently determined independently Okay, John My comment is it seems reasonable given with the assessors paid, but I don't think I have the information to bogey or nay What is the average stipend of the 12? Counts of Arlington compares itself to for school board that would be information that would help me know whether this was Typical or a typical right now. The only date is the assessors can pay 4,900 Does anybody have that information? I do know if you were school committee member in the city that came with 47,000 Yeah I'm sorry anything like 8 or 10,000 a year Made it's very high. I don't know about I mean If we don't want to take a vote tonight, I'm happy You know table of motion and in the recent Find out it won't be that hard. I think to where the three thousand dollar number comes from is that's what this went I Think it's reasonable. I just If 11 of the 12 towns had zero stipend then that would be Okay, so John are you making a motion to table Any recommendation until this is this information is obtained Okay, please second any further issues discussion John I just had one thought which is in terms of this issue of where to put the budget for the stipends Or which budget to put the bed that amount You know, I'm looking at the for example the select board budget and besides the stipends. They have administrative support staff and other Are those are their comparable expenses For the school committee and if so are those in the school budget And so I'm kind of thinking like we're going to talk about keeping the stipends separate on the town side But they already have other school committee expenses on the school side that John I believe it They're administrative kinds of these are supported by the superintendent's office So they don't have separate Right in addition they have their own their own secretary, but the secretary also works under the direction of superintendent Okay, yeah, so that would make it cleaner At least the draft article 14 it has the number three thousand does that mean that when it comes to town meeting It's going to be three thousand or nothing. I Think it means three thousand or under but I I don't have the article in front of me What is it? How does your compensation consisting of an annual stipend three thousand dollars per member? Yeah, I would think it mean three thousand or under I think the moderators interpreted. That's a cap I'm not to speak for the moderator, but that's the position he's taken in the past Charlie so First of all I support any of this. I think they the school committee Puts a lot of work But I strongly believe that this should be Carried and controlled by town meet carried on the town side and Reviewed by town meeting But it says here in article 14 that You know commencing in fiscal year 22 or take any action related there, too So could we not put that caveat with respect to where the budget is carried in this article? In other words identify a certain place within the town budgets that it be carried Not in the school budget, but on the town budget in a warrant article to be voted every year Yeah, I Think we could do that Okay, so in line with my usual Positions that I only assigned people who are enthusiastic enough to find this information Okay, Annie and John could you pick the 12 communities that are we usually identify ourselves with? and I Would think if you just call the school department at each Superintendent's office at each place you could find that Association of school committee has a school committees has a list Already done Staring great at it. Okay, but I'm staring at it. Okay, you and I Annie. Could you call them up? Yep? Okay? So Okay, so I'm accepting that the motion to table Until this information obtained all those in favor, please say aye. Hi posed. Okay, so Any could you see if you could have that for Wednesday and maybe email it around Okay, and You know you might want to throw in be I don't know if we compare ourselves to Medford wall tamer Nobody compares themselves to Cambridge, but please make sure Medford and wall tamer in just so we have Okay data That's second. That's what we'll hopefully get into that So it might give us some thought to figure out we're in the Either of the budgets or a warrant article to put the stipend so put your thinking hats on we'll talk about it Okay, what I'd like to do now is continue down Article 25 now This article was put in by the Board of Selectment I Have yet been able to we keep playing telephone tag with the member of the Board of Selectment Who made the recommendation but this came up because The town manager presented the budget to the Board of Selectment in mid-January He put the caveat that the governor's budget comes at the end of the month So that could change some of these numbers and somebody who says well Why don't we wait the whole budget process until after the governor's numbers have come out? and They put the warrant article in to change it has to change the town manager act I am really nervous about this Because you know we get the budgets in mid-January Then people have got to set aside time to study their budgets Then people have got to set some time to talk to the other people in their subcommittee and then they've got to set up an interview with the department head and then they've got to talk again and then they've got to obviously present here and on in some of you I know To specifically praise David and Peter You know get that process going immediately because the minute we start meeting in February They've got budgets for us that couldn't be done if they only got the budgets a couple days ahead of time And that'll just squeeze us into March So I don't know why they said so as to afford additional time for the town manager to submit That's makes sense and the select board and the finance committee to consider because it takes away The more time the manager has the less time we get to do this Unless you're going to move town meeting back. I don't think there's any desire to do that So I'd like to recommend that we oppose this article And so leave it the way it is Here is the chairman and the other thing that this doesn't recognize is that just because the governor puts the budget out Doesn't mean that's going to be the budget And I can remember many times where we waited until July before we actually knew what the budget was going to be I mean we voted, you know right through town meeting based on on Let me say preliminary numbers are on You know numbers that weren't firm And so I don't think this adds anything at all to our knowledge or ability to plan So I would I would definitely oppose Okay motion John So have you talked to anybody? I talked to the manager He said the motion to do this came from the a member of the board of Soakman who shall remain nameless But was once a former member of this committee I talked oh you did Wasn't a popular idea But the article's in the warrant So The principal motivation I think was to give the manager Put less pressure on the manager or something to that What's the manager's position? He sports it Well, I mean second-hand information Okay, our motion has been made in second to recommend no action on this article, which I think is 25 Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye posed Okay, no action unanimous 3 2 20 Okay 48th position reclassification. Yeah, who's going to write the essay I will I'm sorry did the Motion in the comment Yeah, I will Okay, I talked to Carolyn. She hopes to have position reclassifications ready for on Wednesday Collective bargaining article 49 we've already passed 52 we have to hear from the manager which will be on the 11th 53 we're doing capital budget. We are hearing this Wednesday and we'll also hear their transfer numbers and Their recision numbers so back through 55 57 we've already voted on 58 We'll hear from the manager. That's the public access budget 59 Sewer we've already voted on 50 60 we've water. We've already voted on that Minuteman we hear on the 9th. They're coming up and And he don't I assume you've reminded them we'd like to get the Committees and commissions we just did that that's 62 63 now 63 on Going through the manager's budget. Now. This is appropriation celebrations in events In the past the Patriots Day celebration Veterans Day and Memorial Day. We've appropriated $5,667 Despite of American flags and we've appropriated zero Placing of American flags on that graves of veterans, which is a state requirement is 4500 and Town Day celebration. We've done 5,000 so Is there a motion for those appropriations under 63? That's all part of that 5,667 No, it was all three of those parades are under one I mean the veterans in the Memorial Day is a small group of people that march from All Walgreens up to there. So that doesn't cost anything the all the money really goes into Patriots Day Any other questions So again Patriots Day veterans Memorial 5667 Placing of American flags on graves of veterans is 4500 town day celebrations 5,000 So any further discussion? Did I get a motion? Okay second Motions made in second did all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay favorable action unanimous, that's 95 5,667 67,1 So 15,167 Okay, all of 64 is appropriations I Have a message into Sandy to get the indemnification of medical costs For new people these are costs that are not covered by insurance And so we get a Basically anything they have to pay out of pocket for the previous calendar year goes into this So I have to get it updated number 65 water bodies we've done 66 and 67 we've done 68 68 is the Harry Barber program Requested $7,500 This is the amount the board of the senior Council on Aging So people can Work for within the town for a certain number of hours And get a small stipend which they can then use to pay their rent 7,500 as well we've appropriated for the last 30 years whatever So is there a motion? Second, okay moved and seconded $7,500 for the Harry Barber community service program Okay, any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? unanimous 3-2 Bike share we're going to hear from the manager Oh Charlie are you have anything on article 70 the OPEP? We have the vote of the Contribute the two numbers are 150,000 and 300,000 They've been verified by it. Okay, so there's still 300,000 left in the okay, so This is article 70 So 300,000 from the health care trust fund 155 is what we've always appropriated And I come up with 481 532 500,000 minus 18468 Okay So especially for new people let me explain this is the money we've been putting away to oh for OPEP. So anybody Have the balance was that one of those reports you sent out? I'm sorry, how much is in the fund now? 16 million first that was probably done over a week ago, so Okay, so there's three sums that go into this the first one under a is the 500,000 minus the 18468 which is the last person on the Contributory which gives us 481 532 V is appropriates into 155 now the board at Salakman took a position when they For retirees They increase the amount they pay from 10% to 15% and required that that money go into the OPEP fund and They said if it doesn't go into the OPEP fund if somebody tries to get it into the general fund They'll put the health that they'll reduce the they'll put the health insurance for the retirees back to 10% so I Don't know if they remember that but that's what they took so it's a hundred and fifty five and the 300,000 is from the trust fund when we had the health insurance ourselves We had to have like a three million dollar trust fund because basically it was self-funded Which means we didn't have any insurance so we had about three million there So we've been taking 300,000 a year out of that since we don't need it anymore since we're on the GIC to fund that So 481 532 155 000 and 300,000 Is there a motion so moved any further any discussion or questions Dean? Yeah, so I brought this up last year and The chair brought it up actually earlier in the night, which is When we were talking about the pension so The pension plan I mean we said 2036 is the full funding year for the pension Yeah, but it's a partial payment so we're gonna read up like six million so ramps up ramps up That's a really done 2035 And so I think what a lot of us have thought in the back of our heads is That when we reach full funding on the pension plan that contribution annually would be Shifted to go into the OPEP trust fund and it would be town policy Now why does it matter because it's 2035 it feels like it's a long way away, right? Why? You know, it's nine years away or nine budget years away from hitting the five-year plan So as a finance committee, I think it's important at some point that we have to adopt a policy And we have to start telling town meeting that it seems like it's a long way away But as soon as Like as soon as we get to full funding on the pension We got to start funding the OPEP because what I don't want to be is in a situation where we have never discussed it And we're putting together some like so or somebody's putting this a mythical five-year plan an override scenario in the future And they should well, you know Passes override. It's great. We're gonna get this 20 million dollar pickup once the pensions are fully funded And so maybe this doesn't have to be here that we start talking about this or start putting it into The warrant article or something, but it's it's got to be at some point the next four or five years that it becomes our policy because The 2035 year plan is when it's gonna first hit to show that there's a zero or it's a not-big-number the Benjamin We've got to have a policy. We've got a town meeting fully embracing this as a policy before that I want to be something that would fit in a bylaw Give it more Um There's just certain things that shouldn't go in bylaws because then you have to ask another by a lot of undo down I think this is a policy agreement that should start with the long-range planning committee And I think there's two competing interests to balance one is funding OPEP and the other is Adding some money to give us a smoothing function on the structural deficit I mean we got nine years out of a three million dollar drop in our health insurance costs so there's something to be said to getting a nice glide path past some overrides or Like changing the bumpiness of overrides out of some of this money not all of it obviously But some of it so I think there's more policy development to do here than just us voting on some paragraph and I think the long-range planning committee should put it on their agenda and Then it should go from them to a town. I mean, I think you're right. I'm meeting these people. I've noticed That long-range planning is going to make this recommendation. I Also think it has to be considered in the context of the upcoming I'm not sure that this is something that you want to say right before we ask people to raise a pass Okay, well, we'll have What we probably before we discuss this with with the town meeting is we should ask The retirement board to fund an actuarial study about how much we actually should be putting into OPEP given that that we have a 16 million dollar amount in the fund right now If we keep putting in maybe not you know, maybe when the health insurance trust fund empties out, we'll only be putting in 650,000 a year but You know by the time we get there we're going to have a certain amount of money, right? So we ought to actually do an actuarial study to find out What we should be putting in there to cover both the normal cost and the unfunded liability of the OPEP Issues I'm sorry Well, what's We can put the idea together with a real number and make it work Okay Oh We never could come up with an exact number Okay, let's We can let's talk about this more It's it's a big thing and we want to establish a policy earlier rather than later But I don't think we have to make that decision tonight, but I think both good suggestions okay, so Um Motion has been made and seconded for those three numbers for the OPEP any further discussion 481532 15500 And 300,000 all those in favor, please say aye posed Okay 71 you want to make a recommendation on that? That's the standard They said we've appropriated zero to Appropriate pension adjustment for former 25 year external disability You know, it's the one where we keep everybody at least 50 percent. Yes No, we always do zero Article 71 is the is the article that we've passed every year so when Employee is retired and he's only getting a Cola on 15,000 I think it is now whereas the other town employees are getting their cola on the whole salary so gradually that That employee is going to be getting less and less of a percentage of what that person makes now All this does is put a four or 50 percent So when you get finally to that point that's going to be out like 20 25 years when you finally get to that point This we can appropriate a set of money But usually they've always had the money within the budget within their retirement system to keep those employees at 50 percent And there's a little stipe. There's a little restriction in the middle because of a loophole we had to close Back in 2010 So the motions are made for zero dollars under article 71 to do this Act is there a second Any questions Yeah, normally the impact on the retirement fund itself about $25,000. Yeah Okay Any other questions comments Okay, all those in favor, please say aye Opposed Okay, all those in favor, please raise your hand abstain Okay on three two always your count 1501 Okay, article 72. We've already done article 73 is This is an amount of money taken from over over way reserve surplus accounts To fund the budget Okay, that's fine Okay, the article 74 is transferred from funds of cemetery Wednesday night. I'm sorry Wednesday night. Okay article 40 or 75 Use of free cash We've always used half against the budget and we've rolled half half of that would be 5,000,000 901388 5,000,001 388 that's half of our certified free cash Do I have a motion? Okay, moved and seconded any discussion any questions sort of been the policy we use half we roll half Okay, all those in favor, please say aye opposed unanimous three two and 76 is appropriation long-term stabilization fund. We've been appropriating a hundred thousand into this for eons So moved Second Okay Any questions discussion? Brian was balanced on it. I would guess about three million three Any further questions or discussion all those in favor, please say aye opposed Okay, unanimous three two and 77 is the fiscal stability fund that will be the last article we vote on Okay, well we got a lot done today now on We have the capital budget committee coming in that takes a good chunk of the day who has budgets for Wednesday Okay, health and human services Okay, great others any other budgets even little ones Okay, well that should fill in some space any other business before the committee Okay, meeting is adjourned