 Good evening. We have three different meetings tonight or basically one meeting with three different. So we're going to start with a capital improvement program presentation. Before we do that, I just want to make a couple statements about our meeting, which is virtual. This is allowed because of Governor Baker. And I'm going to call upon each of the counselors who are present at this time and make sure that they can hear me and I can hear them. So we'll start with George Ryan. Present. Pat D'Angeles. Present. Andy Steinberg. Present. Mandy Joe Hanneke. Present. Garcy DeMont. Present. Sarah Schwartz. Present. Steve Schreiber. Present. Evan Ross. Present. So by my count, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight counselors present and others may be joining us. Given that we have a form of the council present, I'm calling this meeting to order at 531. There is no chat room. If there is a disruption in the service, please let a FEMA know as fast as possible or let me know. And we will either pause the meeting until we can get everyone back or we will just make sure that there's a record of that in the minutes. And I just saw another counselor come on and it's Alyssa Brewer. Alyssa, can you hear me? The size of the demonstrate. Thank you. All right. So our presentation tonight is on the capital improvement program, the recommended capital improvement program. It's going to be presented by the town manager, the director of finance and Sonya the controller, and it is preceding the public forum. So there won't be any public comment during this period, although if we have time, counselors might want to ask some questions. The public comment will occur in the next part of the meeting, which is actually the public forum which officially begins at six o'clock. So with that, I'm going to turn the presentation over to all Sean and Sonya. And I believe that Sonya, you are going, I mean, Sean, you're going to be doing the slides. So I'll do a little introduction and Sean's going to be sharing slides with you and then doing the bulk of the presentation. So we had such high hopes. At one point earlier this year, we were doing really well on all of our capital planning, our operating budgets, all that was going forward and then COVID-19 hit. So tonight what we want to do is sort of lead you through the process for our capital improvement program. Talk about a little bit about what the impact of COVID-19 did to us and to our budget to our capital improvement program. And you'll see that clearly in the presentation tonight. We want to talk about the program itself, what we're proposing and talk about the five-year plan and really talk about the role of JCPC, the joint capital planning committee. They did a tremendous work. Recognize the situation and I want to thank all the members of the JCPC, which includes members of the council, members of the school committee and members of the board of library trustees who all contributed time to this. And what I note that my plan program is slightly different than what they had recommended and you'll see the slight difference and we'll explain what that is. It's not a gigantic thing. One of the things I wanted to mention was that JCPC's work is not finished. The plan of action at this moment in time is to bring them back in the fall and have them go in more detailed department by department through our capital budget. So one of the things I just want to recognize is, you know, Sonya had taken this on so all the way to near conclusion and then everything blew up and then Sean has come on and help to move this forward. So I'm going to turn it over to Sean and gone to our finance director and thank them for the work that they did to pull this together and I hope you enjoy the presentation. A lot of people say that they're going to enjoy the presentation. I'm going to share my screen now. Hello everybody. So a couple of things we're going to go through tonight or this evening, we're going to talk about what the charter says about the capital improvement program. The role of JCPC, the process that we sort of the overall capital process and how it flows throughout the year. The specific impact of COVID-19. The FY 21 recommended projects and the five year plan that's related to that briefly about the impact on maintenance and operating costs and then turn it over for any questions. So this is the quote from the charter that talks about the capital improvement program. I'm going to read it quickly. The town manager with advice of JCPC composed of that a minimum representatives from town council school committee and library trustees shall create an improvement program which shall include a clear summary of contents. A list of all the capital improvements proposed to be undertaken during the next five fiscal years with supporting data and rationale cost estimates, including method of financing and recommended time schedules, and an estimated annual cost of operating and facilities into equipment included. So we're going to talk about primarily the first bullet point tonight, but we are working on all of those bullet points and have systems in place to share all of those. So JCPC plays a very important role in the process as they make the recommendation to the town manager. The committee itself is sort of evolved over the last 30 years almost 30 years 1992 is when it was created. So the role it played this year for us a couple times the first to go around and then very briefly the second time is to help review departmental capital requests and their five year plans to review the available funding sources and the changes that are proposed to those funding sources. They hear presentations from department heads and they get have an opportunity to ask questions about various projects and future projects coming up. And they get to hear the capital requests of which we had one this year, and a resident capital request of which we had one this year. And they ultimately make the recommendation to the town manager, and the little balancing picture on the right is really what JCPC does which is trying to balance usually a much larger request from departments and from residents with a smaller amount of funding that's required to achieve a overall program that meets the needs of the town. So this is just a quick snapshot of what the capital process looks like are some of the highlights of the capital process throughout the year. In July and August is typically when department heads are starting to spend the money that was a capital money that was approved the prior fiscal year and accounting and finance are getting the new capital projects set up from the prior fiscal year. September through December is really when a lot of the heavy planning and preparation work happens department heads work on the requests for the for the upcoming capital cycle. The town manager and the finance department will meet with department heads to review their five year capital plans. And it's when we make a lot of the updates to the capital improvement program. And then January through March or sometime around there depending on how things evolve throughout the year is when the JCPC process will start, and it usually begins with sort of a rough draft of the capital improvement program that's presented to JCPC with presentations. JCPC will begin its vetting process. And at the end JCPC will make a recommendation to the town manager sometime around April 1. And then the town manager has the month of April to finalize the capital improvement program and delivered to the town council by May 1. And then the council and finance committee have May and June to review the capital improvement program hold a public forum, and ultimately vote on the capital program capital improvement program by June 30. Some of the specific impacts this year from COVID-19 really shaped the capital improvement program. So I think it was about March when JCPC was sort of halted and all the work to that point sort of stalled and we really had to start over. When JCPC reconvened it did so with about half of the funding that it was previously looking at. And you'll see a snapshot of how much funding was allocated in a few slides. The process where JCPC was condensed pretty significantly. So normally they've got a few months to do their work and we sort of start over in late April and had the month of May and try to get it done before the end of May. And one of the commitments that we, or one of the points that we discussed with JCPC this year, which is the same as with the operating budget is that we do plan on having to revisit the capital budget in the fall. And you'll see why in a few slides and see how things are going, what funding is available at that point, if things have gotten worse or gotten better and work with JCPC to develop a plan moving forward that can be brought back to the council. So a few elements of the capital program that we were hoping to have ready for for this meeting tonight that have been delayed a little bit are the townwide asset listing and the updated five year plan. You will see an up a five year plan tonight, but it's the five year plan, as it was back in March. And one of the things when we were redoing the capital improvement program that we sacrificed in order to spend more time on the current year was reviewing the out years FY 22 and beyond. So that's something we'll be working on with department heads. Once we get more, a better idea of what our funding looks like going forward is to redo that those out years FY 22 and beyond to bring that back in the fall. And one of the highlights of the capital improvement program this year that's a little bit new is you'll see that we've allocated funds to a capital reserve account. And the point of that account is to reflect the uncertainty of town operations next year we, we thought about prioritizing funds to individual projects, but not knowing what schools are going to look like what the local economy is going to look like. It was hard to pick certain projects over others and say this was going to be a priority. So we set aside funds in a capital reserve. So if there's any emergencies that come up between now in the fall, we have funds available to address those concerns. And then in the fall, we can make a decision whether we should allocate funds from this capital reserve to specific projects at that point, or maintain the reserve going forward but it'll be something that will review based on the economic conditions in the fall. So on to the projects that have been recommended for FY 21. So, from cash capital, we have recommended two specific projects, and then the capital reserve so the first specific project our roads. This originally was in the capital improvement program budget for about a million dollars and through the JCPC process and the town managers work on the capital improvement program it was paired down to about 530,000 and then sidewalks was originally in the budget at 200,000 and that was reduced down to 170,000. And these two projects are specifically targeted to address the concerns referred from residents and counselors about the high priority of roads and addressing the backlog of road projects in the town. So those two specific projects total about half of the available cash capital. Total cash capital you can see at the bottom is 1.4 million. And so that's roughly half. And the remaining half will be put into this capital reserve that would be dedicated to address any urgent projects that arise between now or July 1 and the fall. And then at that point we would reevaluate what funds are available for capital and little pie chart just shows roughly half and half. On the other side of cash capital there are a couple other funding sources for potential projects so state aid chapter 90 funds, typically around $840,000. It's not approved yet so that's why you put the asterisk. And we'll find out more about whether that that funding will be available when the state approves it's approves the chapter 90 allotment. So the other funding source that's new is, I think it's from a tax on Uber it's something that's been our ride sharing services, and it's a new new revenue source that we can use for downtown improvements. And so we are allocating $62,000 for that purpose. So this is a snapshot of the full five year plan and I'll go through it kind of slowly because it's a little numbery. The top half of this table are the funding sources, and the bottom half of this table are the expenditures and the shaded gray column is FY 21. So, at the top you'll see the calculation to levy and we do that because typically our cash capital is based on a percentage of the levy. Our goal for FY 21 was 10% and we were there up until COVID-19 interfered and so now we're proposing roughly 5%. And then the other two funding sources 62,000 for is that the ride sharing money and state aid 841,000 so the total funding for capital available for FY 21 is the 3,687,934. Now those out years again we haven't updated those so if you look to the right FY 22 and beyond those have not been updated when we come back in the fall will have a better projection of what funds might be available for capital and FY 22. Depending on how things go that number could be smaller than where it is now. And at the bottom you'll see the expenditure side and it breaks down sort of how the capital project is going to be financed. So where it says funded by cash capital the first thing we have to take off the top of our cash capital is any actual debt that has been obligated in prior years. And so that number in FY 21 is 1,377,400. Again that's projects that have already been approved in the past they were approved to be from a borrowing. And so this is the debt payment on those projects. And then whatever slept over after that and a projected debt can be allocated towards new projects and so that number for this year was the 1,406,651. And then below that are the other funding sources again and projects that are funded by those different sources and so you can see for FY 21, we've allocated the full $3.7 million figure. And again a lot of our work and from now until the fall will be looking at those out years and trying to come back with a more realistic projection of what those look like. One thing you'll note when you look at the out years is that there's a pretty big gap between the project requests and how much funding is available. And so I did identify a few of the strategies that we're going to be implementing or at least considering to try to get this plan and balance will review different financing sources. You know, something that might want to consider borrowing for lease options. Some of the projects potentially could be CPA eligible so we'll look at that and also if there's any grants available. We need to look in general at our vehicle replacement schedule because one of the biggest sort of buckets and FY 22 for projects that are backlogged is vehicles so we need to definitely look at that again. And then we just also have to potentially remove or delay projects that are the lowest priorities for the town. This is just another look at the capital plan from sort of a department view. So again you'll see the capital reserve at the top of the 706,000 and then the rest of the money that's budgeted for this year's in the public works highway and it's the combination of the cash capital for roads and sidewalks. And also the chapter 90 funds and the downtown improvements. And lastly impact on maintenance operating costs so try to focus this on the FY 21 projects. We should see lower maintenance operating costs from any of the roads that do get replaced or improved and ultimately those costs will probably be shifted to other roads that deteriorate more and you need more work. But it should reduce at least for the specific roads that are replaced those costs should go down. And before I turn it over for questions and feedback one thing I'll just know that came up a lot at the JCP C level are about potential expenditures next year for COVID-19. So we have been working with departments pretty closely to get a sense of what their needs are or what they're projecting their needs are you may have seen an article for the schools and the purchase they've done. We just recently submitted a request to the state for CARES Act and it was roughly a $600,000 request and it covered schools and fire and public safety. And a bunch of departments in town and that's our initial request for what departments know right now there's going to be another window where we can request additional funds coming up. And then on top of the CARES Act money we also have to request funds from FEMA in the near future as well. So most of the capital expenditures are even operating expenditures associated with COVID-19 are going to be funded through either FEMA or the CARES Act. And with that, I will turn it back for questions. Okay. As always, if you would like to ask questions and your counselor, please raise your hand. Mindy Joe, I see your hand up. Yes, thank you. I, you know, as a person who served on JCPC, I know that this is not the same as the recommendation that JCPC made to the town manager. But I am curious when we saw this recommendation at JCPC prior to, you know, the plan was originally a 50-50 split the second week of JCPC. And then the recommendation that the JCPC made back to the manager was actually a different split 45-55, I believe. But the 50-50 split had a different allocation of roads to sidewalks. That different allocation had a 600,000 into roads and 100,000 into sidewalks. And what we are seeing tonight has 170 in sidewalks and 530 in roads. And I would like to know what the reason for that change was, because that's different from the, what was presented to JCPC three weeks ago. So I'll start Paul and you can add. So the part of it was, and this was just sort of a weird development of the way JCPC spoke about the projects is that roads and sidewalks sort of got lumped together throughout the process when they're sort of, you know, they sort of got lumped together. So in some ways that the allocation between the two got a little blurred in terms of how much gets allocated to each of them. When I talked to Paul about it, we decided that more money was needed for sidewalks based on some of the things that he's been hearing. And Paul, I don't know if you want to elaborate on that piece. Yeah, I think we've noticed a lot. We've made great progress. DPW has made great progress on a lot of road work, but we need a lot more sidewalk work and we have pending projects that we need to move forward on. And so I felt like it was important to allocate additional funds into sidewalks to prioritize that and to make it clear to the residents that that was something that was a high priority for lots of different reasons. A lot more people are going to be walking. They are walking a lot more people are out and about. And it was just a, it felt like that was a higher priority. Kathy, you have your hand up. Yes, and it's Mandy asked the question I was going to ask. I just wanted to bring more one more point that came out during JCPC and have you confirm, because we didn't have an opportunity. And the staff had not had an opportunity to revise the out years of 22 to 25 or look carefully at the delayed projects. There was a recommendation that JCPC continue to meet in the fall starting in September with that focus and also looking at the reserve fund on, you know, what are we starting to see with things that we felt we were taking a bet on that we had a high probability being able to last a whole year on some critical systems and how are we doing, you know, sort of a mid year check. But I just wanted to confirm that we're on for having that focus on the out years, as well as the it's not even a mid year check it's the first three months in or the first two months into the new year when we know the end of last year, more completely Yeah, absolutely. That's something that we Paul and I spoke about and Paul, you know, gave the green light that we definitely should do. Another reason why we have to meet is there may be other funding sources that are available at that time and potentially more money available for capital. So, you know, in addition to looking at those out years, we just need to look at even FY 21 funding and see what's available because there might be a federal program or state program that helps address some of the revenue loss by that point. The only, we do have a deadline and I'll look to Sonya to to reaffirm this but we do have a deadline where we have to do that process before October when she does the recap. Sonya, do you want to just confirm that Because I figured out how to unmute again. For the capital. Yeah, because we're budgeted a reserve. The recap doesn't matter because the reserve is what we'll get booked to the right but we but if we appropriate more funds for capital. We would have to do that before October before the recap is done if we were to go beyond the reserve. If we thought we were getting more revenues coming in. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I just had Kathy that the preparing that memo is on the town manager's list. We just decided that we had so many things on this week's agenda, not to bring it forward but there's every intention to do so. The question I think now that I'm hearing this deadline is whether or not we should bring that forward and you might also try meeting before September. Okay, and thank you for that because I just thought we should probably probably try to schedule that meeting and have a clear agenda for it and just in in the context, Sean when you gave the list of things will be looking at over the four years you brought up vehicles. Yeah, we also at JCPC this time around didn't get sort of a vehicle inventory of what we have and how older they are. So I think having some semblance of that going into that meeting would be good to. Yeah, that's actually something we're working on right now and we'll make sure it's ready for when we come back together. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Kathy for bringing all that back up. Darcy Pam you have your hand up. Yes. Thank you Paul and JCPC for putting an emphasis on roads and sidewalks. I do have a question about sidewalks I know that the emphasis this year has been on creating some new ones that had needed to be done for a long time. I think we need to put money in this sidewalk budget for repairing of existing sidewalks. Yes, yep. Ultimately, you know it's a combination of the DPW superintendent who decides working with his constituents in terms of what projects get done but yes it can be used for sidewalk replacement or new sidewalks. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. And Darcy you have your hand up. Please unmute Darcy. Early on the energy and climate action committee submitted a budget request. And I, you know, and then COVID-19 happened so it's, you know, very understandable that that was not something that could happen in this fiscal year. I'm just hoping that, you know, when I looked at the fact that we have a five year capital plan now, and we also have a goal that we're supposed to reduce our emissions by 25% by 2025 and five years. There's going to be a piece that we're going to need to look at and I'm hoping that we can, we can get the council updated sooner than later on. What that, you know, the direction that the committee is going in with the municipal vulnerability preparedness grant. And one thing that I just wanted to ask, one of the things that we had supported ECAC was the resident capital request and just wondered what the conversation was about that. And whether it's going to carry over to the next fiscal year or how that's going to be dealt with. Anybody else can jump in, but the way I interpret it is that the request hasn't been approved or rejected. It's that we'll consider it again in the fall when we come back together. I didn't, I don't think the committee made any decision in terms of whether to recommend it or not recommend it at this point. That's totally correct. And it's Darcy, it's potentially on the list to be dip into the reserve pool. And one of the things that we had asked for when it came up was to make sure they talked to the school committee and that the school committee was in support of that. So my understanding is that has happened, but it was just to, to do the full circle of its solar canomies, particularly over this, the parking lots as a study. So it's not gone as Sean said it was not gone like voted no or even rated in any way. It's just literally everything. There's no line item now except for roads and sidewalks. It's everything else. All the other capital spending is in this thing we call the capital reserve. Thank you. Are there any other comments at this time. Okay, we're about two minutes before the end of this session. And we're going to be moving right on to the public forum. Any other last comments. Just for clarification, no one has to log off they just stay where we are. And we just start. Okay, thank you. Right. Maybe Joe, you have your hand up. It's not a different soon number than Paul. No, I was going to clarify too that we're going to technically adjourn this and then recall to order at six, right? Correct. So seeing that there are no hands and we're going to be doing public comment on the next meeting. I'm going to adjourn this and in one minute we will reconvene and I will go back and take roll again.