 Good evening. This is Charlie Foskens chair of the finance committee. Permit me to confirm that all the members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members and I call your name. Please respond in the affirmative. Grant Givian. Here. Shane Bunzel. Here. John Ellis. Mikaela Healy. Here. Mary Margaret Frankelman. Here. Arif. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Here. Brian Beck. Peter Howard. Uh-oh. Peter Howard. Shailene Pocrus. Daryl Harmer. I am. Shailene, you're here. Thank you. Daryl. Here. John Deist. Here. Alan Jones. Annie Lecourt. Here. Bill Keller. Altos is not here. He's going to be late. George Koser. Here. Christine Deschler. Here. Ian Carmen. Here. David McKinnon. Here. OK, so who's not here? Altos is not here. Brian Beck is not here. Peter Howard. Is he here yet? No, John Ellis is just signing in now. OK. So, Annie, can you act as Secretary Pro Tem? I can try. Thank you very much. Hopefully, Peter will be with us shortly. So the main budget that we'll do tonight is the water and sewer budget. And I believe that Grant is ready to do that. I've seen some documents wending their way into SharePoint. And then there are a number of articles that we want to, more or not, we'd like to try to finish off. I outlined most of them in that little document that I sent out a little bit earlier. If there's anything that anybody wants to discuss about the school budget tonight, we can certainly do that. But I think Dean is going to be, Dean and Shane and Charlene are going to be doing some work on that. And then I'm also expecting there's going to be some discussions between the superintendent and the town manager. And probably we'll have some more information on Monday, so my thought is to push that off until then. And then we'll have a discussion from the working groups. So Liz Diggins, you're here? Yes, I am. And we have no speakers tonight, right? We don't. OK, thank you. So this open meeting of the Arlington Finance Committee is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020 due to the current state of emergency and the coming off due to the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. In order to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, we've been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings. And as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of the public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. The order, which you can find posted with agenda materials for this meeting, allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely, so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. This meeting will feature public comment only in writing by email to edigginsattown.arlington.ma.us.com. This meeting is convening by video conference via the Zoom app as posted on a town's website identifying how the public may join and comment. Please note the meeting is being recorded. And as some attendees are participating by video conference accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to share your screen, screen share your computer. Anything in your broadcast may be captured by the recording. Meeting materials have been provided to members of this body and are available on the town's website unless otherwise noted. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless the chair knows otherwise. The chair will introduce each speaker on the agenda after they conclude their remarks. Chair will be down the line of members inviting each by name or in general to provide any comments, questions, or motions. Please hold until your name is called. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and state your name before speaking. If members wish to engage in colloquy without the members, please do so through the chair. Finally, each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. Thank you very much. I wonder if I'll have that memorized by the time it's over. Okay, so has Peter shown up? No. No. All right, well, we'll skip over the minutes then and go directly to the water and sewer budget. Grant. Oh, thanks, Charlie, for like getting right to it. And well, you know, the good news is the meeting's being recorded. So Peter is in luck and Annie's catching a break. I'm gonna take a few notes anyways, at least for the votes, Grant. Oh, okay, well, you can relax during this presentation. So water and sewer is a enterprise budget and I usually start off by calling it sewer and water because that's just sort of how the whole budget presents itself is just not as intuitive as other budgets do. It's listed in the sewer components come first in the budget before the water, probably more alphabetically than logistically. The other thing I wanted to mention is we have a deal with the MWRA but I always like to kind of point out that I think we have the best water period in terms of its quality and in terms of its availability. This region, we don't get hurt by drought as we aren't affected by it as many other areas and the quality is just excellent. So I think it's the best bargain on the planet. It's most undervalued commodity, it's clean water. So let's get the expense and the paying part of it. So the budgets, the water and sewer or sewer and water department is divided or let's call it organized into four divisions. They start with the sewer collection system which by the way contains a very important the DPW indirect charges and the offset charges indirect to the other departments in the town as well. Grant, can I interrupt you for one second? Are you dealing from the manager's budget book or are you dealing from a document that you have modified? Oh, it's off the budget, that's how it starts off sewer collection system on page one, I'm sorry. We're gonna start on page 164 folks of the budget and you know what we can share my screen. I think that would be a good idea, yes. Now I have been having some difficulty getting the document to appear on this Windows 8.1 and I'm not sure if it's appearing now or if it's just file manager. It's just file manager. All right, would any be so kind or someone be so kind to bring the budget up? Can you do that, Mr. Jones? I had worked with this earlier on this PC and thought that I had gotten it but I guess... The documents are in SharePoint too. Yes, but if Alan's got them and can share them, I'm trying to take some notes, so there we go. Thank you, Alan. Go ahead, Grant. Okay, let me get back to the... Okay, so the first one, as I mentioned, let me get to the, sorry about this, not my first rodeo, but okay. So we're starting on page 164 with sewer collection system. Now it's gonna be kind of interesting here because we're gonna have to also work off of that other handout, the consolidated worksheet that I wrote up. We might be able to do it logistically in order though. So the first section of this is the DPW staff indirect charges and this is the first year it's been appropriately titled as indirect charges that used to appear as salary and wages. This represents, and these indirect charges I'll explain on the handout. In the next section, the indirect charges for the sewer section are also explained. This is part of the offset mechanism. In that sense, what happens is the sewer and water department only has one division that actually employs people and it's not the sewer collection system, it's not the water sewer properties as well. What these are is these pay, or this is the salaries that all the other DPW divisions that do work for the water division, these are their expenses. They take the total expenses and divide it by half and 50% or half of it goes to the sewer collection system staff indirect charges. And the other half goes to the water sewer properties but there they call them salaries and wages. So this is a constant as a function of the offset mechanism as are the rest of the next section, the indirect charges. The only amounts, there's the workman's comp cost and unemployment compensation. These are amounts are constant every year and these amounts are just, Sandy calls them placeholders. I call them probably required fields when they implemented this legacy system long ago and they had to be plugged in with something. So these are the amounts they plugged in. They don't really change anything, they're pretty immaterial to the extent of the budget. And the next ones, these actually represent the offsets that we've seen in the other budgets, the retirement costs, the health benefits and the indirect costs. The indirect costs, all of these represent 50%, by the way, in the 2022 budget, these are all 50% of the total expenses because the other half is shared in the water sewer properties, indirect charges section as well. The indirect costs represent the salaries paid to the non-DPW related work. That would be the select men, that would be the town manager, postage and all of the other items that I've actually listed in the consolidated worksheet detail. So if we want, I'm gonna try at this point, if I may try and share my screen and are we looking at the consolidated FY22 water, sewer and water budget amounts document? Can someone confirm that for me please? Yes. Okay, thank you. I can't see everybody. So what this represents is, this is a document you can follow along on the other budgets where if you take a look, this is at the consolidated, this doesn't appear anywhere. This is the document I prepared for presentation purposes and to frustrate myself most of the day with trying to print it. So as we see, I have the retirement costs and I have the page references to the budget book page 154, the retirement budget and that's the full amount is the 1,425,766. And this is divided by half and half of that appears in the aforementioned budget in the indirect charges on the retirement cost, half of it is 712,883. That holds through for the next two lines as well. And then in this next section, subtotal indirect charges, sewer and water, try to explain it and listing out. And this also serves as a cross check to make sure all the offsets are included and that they add up right or add up correctly. So if we see on the right here, we see the budget details and sources and we see the engineering department. I have the page numbers in the budget reference that somebody wants to double check or cross check. I'm fine if you don't. So these are all listed here in the total of the, of this is a million 186,943 and you'll see that represents half of the indirect charges which should be the 593,472. And there's around $1 rounding position in that. That holds through same for the offsets. I've done that down here. I'm sorry, the health benefits where the total health benefits, the total health offset amount is actually comprised of more than just the water and sewer portion. I have it listed as DPW, it should be water and sewer as 647,402. And if you see that line matches up with the health benefits line, that is also divided by two and split amongst those other two budgets, the sewer collection and the water sewer properties. And then the indirect costs I've listed in this column over here where we have the select board and the town manager and the HR and all of these other departments that do work for the water sewer division but aren't directly controlled by the budget. That's essentially in the nutshell, the offset mechanisms. If we look down in this page here, what I did was I clipped out pieces of the individual budgets, the sewer collection and the water sewer properties. So you can see that the actual amounts here, 593,472, when they totaled up, they equal the grand total that's up in the consolidated version. So I think I hope that that can clarify or at least provide a scorecard for how these offset mechanisms coincide or work. Grant, this is Charlie. Can I ask if you could just confirm something for the committee. So in summary, what you have done is checked all the offsets in all the budgets across the manager's budget book against the water and sewer usage so that you know that those offsets are correct. Yes, and also for the summary portion of the budget as well. Thank you. And if we can just breeze by that and go back to sharing the, was it Alan that you had the budget up? If we could go back to that. Did I stop sharing my screen? No, I did, okay. Thank you, thanks for playing along. So okay, if you wanna go back up to page 164, please Alan, back to the original. Thanks. So where we last left off is I just explained the indirect charges of the sewer and that will also be explained in the other section of sewer and water or at least depicted. So here we come to the real part of the budget and this is titled sewer collection expenses. And part of the difficulty with this, again, not straightforward, and I have volunteered to help with the line items where it says subtotal sewer collection, it should say subtotal sewer collection expenses because that would then correspond with the summary at the bottom of the budget. Needless to say, we can work past that. Contracted services, if we look at the budgets, only increased 5,000 from the previous year. However, there is a, I did make a note in question about why the budget amount is a bit higher than the actual amount. I did get a response from Mike Rademacher and he wrote it, I could read it, not happy with it completely, but I might not understand it completely either. He says essentially that the number does fluctuate from year to year and that he likes to keep it on reserve for emergencies. Should we need contracting help in making a repair? And I can see in the sense of water and sewer that it is good to have a little bit of a buffer there because an emergency is in fact an emergency and needs to be addressed right away. Now, the rest of the budget's pretty flat. The electricity he has at 20 at the same amount from year to year. Yeah, they tend to spend a little less of it. And again, sort of the same logic involved with that. Then to correspond that in this particular budget, the materials and supplies, it seems much more even at 24 and it's actually less than he spent or less than his department has spent in the previous years. The following line is the MWRA assessment sewer and that's what it is. It's not like there's any budgeting magic involved with that. Again, that's also summarized in the bottom of the board. If you wanna scroll down to page 165, please, Alan. So the next section we have here is the debt service and the capital part. And this is pretty constant as well and dictated by the MWRA loan programs. The next section is the sewer rehab. And this is a section that might have liked to have voted the warrant articles first, but this is where they have $100,000 kept for when they do their sewer rehab. But they also ask, we also ask in the articles, I think for the sewer, it's gonna be 800,000. And that's the amount that they typically get for sewer rehab. So the next section is a different form of a sewer. This is the storm sewer collection system. And again, this should be titled storm sewer collection expenses because it's summarizing the expenses section on the summary. So the contracted services seem to be a bit higher. And the question on that was raised. And I think part of the bit with the storm sewers was that the big answer in this was, we expect these fund requirements to steadily increase as a result of stricter DEP regulations related to storm water. So they're saying it's gonna be more expensive to maintain the storm sewers based on the regulations. Any questions on any of this or if the chair prefers to wait until the end of the budget? Why don't we wait until the end of the budget grant and then we can come back and ask particular questions. Perfect, excellent. Thank you, Alan, if you wouldn't mind scrolling down to 166, thanks again. So this is the water distribution system. So we've covered two of the two divisions already of the sewer section. And this is the water distribution system, now here, this section is the real salary and wages. These are really people that work for them. And we can look at salary section next. They did do some readjusting where their person retired and they're not planning on replacing him. I think part of this is again, gearing more toward using contracted services. And then we can look at the detail of that at the end of the budget as well. The next section is the indirect charges. And these are the the offsets that are explained in the consolidated handout or reference sheet. And all of those correspond to the section under the sewer collection systems as well. That's 50% of that. Now the next section is the water distribution expenses and should total up into the expense sections of the summary. And we have the contracted services which has a bit of an increase. And again, it's expected to use more contracted services. And one of the notes in this particular thing was in one of them. Again, we're expecting, oh, they're also in the coming years gonna be using an outside vendor supported billing software. So they expect this, they might be a little less in the coming years once they start using that. At least that was the response. Okay, so that covers the water distribution expenses. The rest of the expenses, I'm sorry, the rest of the expenses are pretty flat, they're the same. Materials and supplies seem to be a little, I'm trying to look at my notes here for where I've had this. You can hang here with me for a moment because I'm, there we go. Materials and supplies budgets have significantly higher in the last two years. And the reason why it was explained is we expect greater expenses in this line as we embark on replacing our meter reading technology over the next several years. I can't do it. Jane, I can't. I've got to try to follow this. I'm sorry. Yeah, you just come quickly and unmute it. Hey, Pete, you might want to mute. I muted Pete, so you can continue. Mr. Chair, should I? Go right ahead, Grant. You're on mute, Grant. All right, somehow I was on mute. I guess, okay, we are now. All right. All right. So the line was on materials and supplies is that they expect greater expenses because they're replacing their meter reading technology over the next several years. He has said FY21, we expended 135,000, which is higher than the previous year. Alrighty, if we may go on to the next page. So now we're still in the water distribution system category. This next line is the MWA assessment for the water. The following lines for the water distribution system. I'm sorry. So that's the total, I love how this is organized. So that represents the total of the expenses, assessments, and capital assigned to the water distribution system. The next section is the water sewer properties section. And I think this is really the division that was created so it could put another salaries and wages here and this is the other 50%. They need to split it between water and sewer or sewer and water. So this is the section in the water, that's 50% of it. The next section is the rehabbing the water mains. And this is similar to the rehabbing of the sewer mains in that there's a warrant article that they are also proposing. And this one's for 1.3 million, whether you get the bulk of the money. The next section is the MWRA loan program. Looks trying to pay down or accelerate the payment to the debt, draw it down the debt as one would say. The next section is the expenses section of water and sewer properties. And I kind of point this out because it should be easier for whoever ever does this in the future because all these lines tie into expenses and they're not even identified as such. So it does help the person have to subtotal it. So these are pretty constant here as electricity, natural gas and they're all budgeted the same and they're relatively close to what the actuals are. The next section is the principal and interest of the water debt service. Still on sewer properties, if we go to the final page of this 168. Back up one, sorry, Alan. These are some capital accounts. One more, there we go, thank you. Capital accounts is the hydrant replacement program which is we're budgeting half as much as last year and the water capital equipment fund. So these are all the capital equipments and Alan, if you wanna please scroll down to the, I believe this is the first summary page. Okay. So these are all the summary items and again, it's more of a reconciliation exercise or a tick and tie exercise, but so the personal service summary should equal all the salary and the wages. That would mean the actual wages and the indirect wages, the ones that are assigned to DPW salaries. On the expenses summary is the sum of all those items that I mentioned should have the line items expenses after them, the MWRA assessment correlates and the indirect charges for the indirect costs correlate to the indirect costs of the non-DPW costs associated with working with the water and sewer. The capital debt, health insurance and retirement all check out as well, as well as the placeholders water comp, workman's comp and unemployment. The next section, this is actually their revenue section where they've had the transfer from the general fund only half as much as the expecting to in the previous year. And we can see that the sewer, the accounts receivable or the amounts from the water bills have increased as well. So before I move, are there any questions on this budget? So members, let me just get a screen here where I can see what you're doing. Let's see. Okay, so, Andy, you have your hand up. Yeah, I don't know, Grant, whether you would know this, but do you have any idea what's going on with the water sewer debt shift being transferred back to the water bills? Is that reflected in here somewhere? Or is that happening or not happening? Right there, Andy, line 4972. Notice that it's decreasing by 5.5 million a couple of years ago, 5.6 million. Now it's down to 1.8 million. And the water sewer charges that you get on your water bill below that are going up. Okay, so that's what that transfer from the general fund represents. That's the debt shift. And my understanding is it'll be zero next year. Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea. Yeah, otherwise everything seems really clear to me, Grant. Good. We all have opinions on the debt shift, but... Okay, John Ellis. Two questions. First question, we had discussions about how in the DPW budget, Mike takes things from certain line items and puts them in other line items and winds up spending a lot more actual than is listed. Can you just confirm that you're not allowed or he wouldn't be moving from water and sewer money to DPW money? Because you mentioned there's like this line that he doesn't use at all, but maybe I'll need more later. So when he's transferring that, that just gets transferred in size somewhere to another line item in water and sewer is my guess, but can you confirm that? That is... I think he even mentioned that one of the... As with any of these account line items, unspent funds stay in the enterprise account. Okay. Then one question was about postage. I think that was kind of bundled into some indirect line. Last time I tried to do my water and sewer bill online, pay it, it wasn't possible. The treasurer says they're getting some new software. Every bill I have, the companies are desperate to make me pay online so they don't have to spend however much it costs to send me a bill, probably about 50 each one. So do you know any information about when to be able to pay our bills online and when we can expect to see them reduce the costs in postage by encouraging people to pay online? Well, it would be an easy one to... John, thanks for the question. That would be an easy one to toss over into the treasurer's bin because they're the ones that are in charge of doing the money collecting. Water and sewer pretty much just delivers the water. That's why the indirect charge, that's why basically water and sewer pays money to the postage, pays money for postage and also pays money for the treasurer to do that. I guess I was thinking about being able to mention something about software. So I... I kind of had a comment to that, John. So we had a discussion about four or five weeks ago when a reef went over the IT budget and there was a lot of discussion about the... I actually forgot the name of it but the old cash management system, which ran on Informix and it's... ICS. ICS, yes, thank you. And that cash management system is just about out of the town except for water and sewer. And that's what it's being used for. And my understanding is that the illumination of that residual program is tied to deploying a different style water meters at people's homes for a remote collection of data. I don't exactly know what the status is but I know that it's a project that's been in process. There's 14,000 homes, they have to get them all updated or registered with the right equipment in order to change the cash management system. So, and I think a reef told us that that was going to happen in the next... I thought it was 12 months, I'm not sure. You may want to comment on that. Okay, because I had some emails that you were CC'd on about the treasurer saying they're switching some billing software. That's the ICS. It's a combination... The old system was called Integrated Cash something or another. Well, election software. Collection software, thank you. And they basically got it out except for the water sewer and it's a combination of billing and cash management and it's tied to the water meter reading technology. Okay, that wasn't how I understood that email but I can take that offline for later. So, the interesting that helps me actually understand did sort of question the answer that he has higher materials and supplies expenses because he's replacing the meter reading technology which you'd like to think overall is going to reduce the cost somewhere otherwise why would it be more expensive? So, the materials and supplies are increasing but I guess that's working John toward installing the meters in all of the homes. I did have... I did hook another question toward Mike because I expected Peter Howard to ask me this question actually about the progress of the installation of all the replacing all the water meters. I'll have to report back when I get the answer to that to be fair to Mike. I just pinged him with that yesterday. Dean, you had a question. I do, I actually have, I think four of them if I... No. Yeah, if I get to them quick enough. No, the last question I was gonna ask actually was sort of a rat circling on what John Ellis said which was, so the replacement of the water meters is necessary to then turn it over the billing system. I would assume in a project that size and scope with 14,000 parcels that the DPW director has a project plan like when he expects to do how much he expects to do things like that. Could we just get a copy of it? And that way when we have this discussion each year we can just hold up the project plan and ask for a status update. I think that would be very nice. That's my first question. It's kind of more of a request I guess. My second thought grant is, as you know, like you've referenced in your presentation that the town does allocate costs to the departments and they have billing offsets and things like that. That's all based on a study that Powers and Sullivan did several years ago, right? So they go, when do they do a cost allocation study and then the town follows it. If I remember correctly, I think Andrew Flanagan was deputy town manager the last time we did a study. So my question is, are we getting to the point, I don't think you should do a study every year because then it's silly, but are we getting to the point where we should do another one? And if not, when are they thinking like is it an every 10 year thing? Is it in every year the finance committee grumbles about it thing? Like what are we, what are they thinking? I think one's, I remember the Flanagan thing, yes, but I think one's done since then, but I'll check on that at the end. I just think it's a question to just make sure we're getting the latest. And the amounts, by the way, they think they also, the amounts fluctuate from year to year two and their recommendations make it even less straightforward, but I can inquire about that. So my third question, I don't know if it's really a question but I looked at our annual financials and we have 17 million in revenue from the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund and we have $12 million in cash in the bank account, which is like three quarters of a year's worth of cash when we do quarterly billing. Like starting with like we do annual or semi-annual billing, like we're billing quarterly at this point. And I thought we had like bullied and pushed the DPW director into using that money for his building project. I think we are kind of, and I think that probably still could be it, but can we just confirm that they're gonna use that, they're gonna draw some of that down for the DPW portion of the capital of the yard project? Yes, my understanding too, Dean. All right, and then the last thing, and I will email this to you so you don't have to get it. If you could ask the town, if you could, I'm done asking him for the unaccounted formal water. So if I would like, and I'll send you this email, I would like our, for any one year period, I don't care where he starts and end, the total gallons that the MWRA built us for and the total gallons which we charged residents in the town and whatnot. Because if you divide one by the other, that's the water that's sort of evaporated. Okay, that's good. I'll email you for it. Dean, thank you. I know, I'm looking forward to getting that again this year. I'll just calculate it myself now. It's fine. Well, I think the thing that we can't, we always go around around on this because I always ask Mike about this. And the thing we go around around on this a little bit is that the major buildings don't have meters. I know. And so I don't know how one accounts for that water. Yep. I know, but I'll forward your email along. Thank you. I really appreciate it. We've had this conversation before and I'm glad you're doing it in the email. That's excellent because he's, should be prepared for something like that. Dean, let's back up for a minute on the project plan. I'm also, and just former project manager myself, I used to hate getting those questions. And Mike's not, I've anticipated that and I've actually already asked for that, but not the first time I've asked. So it'd be interesting to see what we get back. Yeah, I mean, it's a, the public records law says he has to give it to us. So in the time of bylaw actually, for the finance committee says he has to hand it over. So. I think if we insist on it that he won't object to it, it's just, I think when one person asks for it, you know, it's like, you know, some of the answers to my questions are very nice, but I think they could have been a little bit more directly answered, but I can appreciate that. You know, it's not easy answers either. So I will be glad to forward that over and I will also already asked about the project plan. So. Thank you. And I will also ask Sandy about the next study. Thank you for your comments and input. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Grant on this budget? Okay, I don't see any hands up here. So I have a couple of questions, Grant. So the town has been involved in a series of legal actions associated with the combined water sewer outflows. You know what I'm referring to? In other words, there are potentially spots where the water system and the storm drain system and the sewer system are not separate. Right, some like seven or nine of them yet. So you know the status of those legal actions by the state? No, I don't. Would you like me to check on them? Yes, what do we have any liability with the state also? I believe last year, the state also had the town under some sort of, I don't know if the correct term is legal, but some sort of administrative review with respect to the issue that Dean raised about leakage. And, you know, they have a standard that you know, it's supposed to have more than a certain amount of leakage. And I believe we also had some financial risk there. So I think that would be a corollary question to follow up on. Okay, one of the things, but what would you like, what's the... I'd like to know for both of those, let's put it this way, any state or federal, let's only use the term litigation, although I don't know if that's the correct term, but administrative action against the town with respect to the water sewer system, leakage is combined sewer outflows or whatever. Okay. Those are not small items. No, so on the leakage thing, yeah, okay, that sounds good. I recall and other conversations in previous years about the wasted water or leaking water, et cetera. And that's part of the thing is that it replaced, that's part of their ongoing effort. And they go to the places where they have the biggest leaks first or something to replace them, but I will ask them about that. Okay, and then did you have any discussion with them? I can't remember, it was last, I don't think it was last year's town meeting because they had that really short town meeting, but probably the town meeting before where the town manager was presenting the idea of charging people more money for watering their lawns. And they were gonna do this by measuring the water flow in the winter and then the water flow in the summer and determining how much they were spending on their lawns versus their residential use and charge work. Do you have any idea what the status of that is? No. Do you think I thought some of these questions some of these might be more sandy questions than my questions? Well, he's measuring the water for sure, I don't know. Okay, and then, so Dean mentioned, did you talk to him about what he thinks the balance of the enterprise fund is? Dean mentioned, would you say Dean, $12 million? That's the amount of cash, I don't know if that's the balance, that's not the balance. Cash could be associated with some debt as well, right? My apologies, I usually do get the balance of the fund, I usually have to get it from Ida rather than Mike, but I did not get it this time, I'll get that as well. Forgot the oversight. So would we like to hold off until I get the questions or do you want to go ahead and approve the budget? Well, I'm going to suggest that the, that's the decision the committee can make. If you make a motion to approve the budget and somebody moves to put it on the table, then we'll hold it off. But in the meantime, you can decide what you want to do. Very good, well, we'll just let the process play out. I move that we approve the water and sewer budget for was it 23 million, 388, 928? 238, 588, 928. Yes, sorry. Second. Income and expense. Yes. Is there a second? Second. Oh, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? No hands are up. I haven't heard a motion to, oh, Micaiah. Sorry, just wondering if you feel if it would be better to table it in order to get answers to your question, like if you think there'll be more. I think you can make that motion. That's what. Okay. I move to table. Okay, is there a second? Oh. Second. There you go. Okay. It's a, so the motion is, is made to a table list. And so we had the answer to the questions and it's not debatable. So let me take the vote. Grant Gibbian. I'll abstain. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. No. A no vote means a no is against the table. And if you vote yes, it is four tabling. Micaiah. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Harif. Harif, are you there? No. Oh, sorry. I meant to say no. I was on mute. Yeah, Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Brandon Beck. He's not here, I think. Peter Howard. Peter Howard. All right. No. Shailene. Yes. Daryl. John Dice. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Daniels Court. No. Al Tosti. No. George Cozer. No. Christine Deschler. No. Dean Kerman. Yes. And David McKenna. No. Okay, so we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine votes in favor of tabling. And we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight votes. No. So the motion to table, the vote to table passes so that the vote is tabled until we get the answers to these questions. So, Grant, do you want to take us on to the morning articles for Water and Silver, please? Sure. Geez, Charlie, I shouldn't have abstained and voted. That way you would have a chance to vote. I prefer not to vote. It's easy. I know, that's why I didn't that way. I don't mind, I don't mind waiting either. I think it's kind of the right thing to do. I believe these are articles page 12 in the warrant article 59. We'll start with article 59. And that was page 12 of the warrant. Yes. Article 59. Nicely highlighted. So the amount of this is 800,000 that we're asking for. It's the same as every year. So I move that we approve the 800,000 for En-Sooge facilities. Second. No, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any, just lost the, any questions on this article? Keep losing the participants. There we go. Any questions on this article? Just to clarify so that I'm sure we're all on the same page. This is money that we borrow from the state at little or no interest. Correct. It's interest free, yes. From the end of it, we borrow from the NWRA. And I think a corollary question that you might want to ask of Jonathan Wallach is that, is this the same number that's in the other category in the capital budget? John, is that the case? We'd have to get back to you on that one. Charlie, is it the same number? I don't have it in front of me. It normally is. And when I had your job, I used to confirm that every year, you know? I'm just saying that. I'm happy to confirm it. If you're on your boat. Go check. Okay. What's the number again? But please, let us not table this one. Just. Let's not. We won't table it. What's the number? 800,000. Thank you. For the sewers, okay? No. Article 59. Any other questions on article 59? Okay. So it's been moved into seconded. No, seeing no other hands raised or questions. I will proceed with a vote. Grant Gibbian. Hi. Shane Blundell. Makanya Healy. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif Padarian. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Brian Bexna here. Peter Howard. Shailene Pokers. Yes. Darrell Harmer. Yeah. John Deist. Yes. Allen Jones. Yes. Yannula Court. Yes, and you skipped John Ellis. I did. I think so. John Ellis. You got me? Yes. Ellen Tosti. Yes. George Koser. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yes. Ian Karman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. That's a unanimous vote to support the $800,000 of MWRA debt for the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund. Traditionally, don't you explain that this is the amount they overcharge us and then lend us back a zero interest? That was the prior boss. We actually forgot to do that. I wanted to thank Annie for mentioning about the detail behind it. But yeah, we, off the game tonight, I guess. I'm moving on to Article 60. It's been voted and closed. Article 60. Go ahead, Grant. Okay. Article 60, familiar territory. So this is interest-free, that just never happened. This is the same deal as the other one, except this one is for water mains and this is 1.3 million. So if there aren't any questions and of course pending the John to verify this as well as the other amount, I move to approve the 1.3 million dollar appropriation for the reconstruction of water mains. They're seconded by Annie. Okay, no hands are up. So Grant, give me in. I, how many? Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Kaya Healy. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif Padaria. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Peter Howard. Yes. Shailene Pocrus. Yes. Daryl Harmer. Yes. John Deist. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Annie LaCourt. Yes. Alan Tossi. Yes. George Coster. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yeah. And Dean Kerman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So the Intertree, the water and sewer loan from the MWRA for, sorry, water loan from the MWRA for the sewer enterprise fund is past unanimous. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I actually can not confirm at this time that those are the same numbers. I'm looking at the current master spreadsheet for the capital plan and they've actually got 900,000 for sewer system and 1.4 million for water system. So I'll have to look into that a little bit further. Okay. That's what's going on. Well, since we've voted it, why don't we just look forward to your feedback at the next meeting? All right. And we'll get back to you. Meanwhile, you should coordinate with Grant because we don't know whether Grant was given incorrect information or the capital planning committee was given incorrect information. Now, I think what it is is there's a $100,000 for sewer rehab in the budget. Oh, yes. $100,000 in water mains in the budget. Okay. You're right. It's as non, not MWRA numbers. Gotcha. So then yes, I can confirm that those numbers are correct. Okay. Good. Excellent. And if I may. So actually every year I would say this amount that Alan Tosti would then tell me. So which is the amount that we're asking for and which is so glad that we got this cleared away the same way. So. Okay. Thank you. So Grant, when you come back with the answers to those questions, we'll quickly take up water sewer and the enterprise fund budget and vote it. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Peter, would you like to do the minutes from April 5th? Sure. The minister got circulated late today and to my leave them my delay, I guess. I got several inputs. I've, I've, I've, I've incorporated those. I move they be accepted as corrected. Thank you, Peter. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you. So on the minutes, any further discussion on the minutes? I see none. Okay. Grant Gibbian. Aye. Shane. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Kaye Healy. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Peter Howard. Yes. Shailene Pocrus. Yes. Darrell Harmer. Yeah. John Deist. Yes. Helen Jones. Yes. Yes. Alan Tosti. Yes. George Cozer. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yes. Dean Karman. Yes. Dave McKenna. Yes. Thank you. Minutes are passing in this way. Okay. So the next, we have several sort of cleanup things, not on the home cleanup, but just to make sure that we voted all of the things that we have addressed in the past at various times. So on page three of the document that I emailed out to you earlier on that says committees, is the article on committees, which I've forgotten the number of it. It's 50 something, I think. It's 62, I believe, Charlie. 62. Yes, there is appropriation. 60. So we heard from Arts and Culture. They requested less money, $30,000. Zero waste actually requested $500 more, but the finance working group, I don't know if they talked to them or they talked to Sandy Poole, but that Zoom feature was available without the additional money. So we voted 3,000, we voted the same amount as the prior year. So the various boards and committees are listed there in, I think it would be a motion to accept that number of, oh, I didn't tell it. It's, I have it here, hang on a second. It's 88,000 or something. Can't believe they knew that. I'll be with you in a second. Don't rush the math, Charlie. No, I haven't, I'm trying to get the spreadsheet. When I copied it into that document, I didn't go all the way down to where the total was. The total of those numbers is 88,835 dollars. So a motion to adopt that figure for article 62 is in order. So moved. Is it seconded? Would you say the number again, please? 88,835 dollars. So is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? You can speak up if you want to. I don't have the right screen in front of me. No hands raised. Okay. So then on article 62, we moved to a vote. Grant Gibbian. Aye. Shane. Yes. John. John. Yep. Tia. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Yes. Shailene. Yes. Daryl. Yes. John. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Annie. Yes. Alan. Yes. George. Yes. Christine Detchler. Yes. Dean Karmann. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. That vote is unanimous. So on the following page, there are three items here. Sandy Pooler did verify these numbers. The town day celebration. This is the one that's the page title. Are you showing us something or not? No, I sent it out to you. I'm sorry. Okay, no problem. I can show it to you. Hold on. It's article 63. No, I think Arif is asking there is no, I could share my screen. Just give me 30 seconds here. Thank you. Okay. Can you see that? Yes. Okay. So the article, the numbers in black were last year's numbers. The town, actually last year, the town day celebration. What we zeroed that because of the pandemic. Sandy indicates that that we may have a town day this year. If we don't, of course the money won't be spent and it'll go into free cash. So are there any questions? This is pretty standard. We do this virtually every year. No questions. A motion to approve is in order. So moved. Moved and seconded in article 62. Did somebody say it? 63. 63. Okay. Grant. Hi. Shane. Yes. John. Yes. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Yes. Chaelene. Yes. Daryl. Yes. John. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Annie. Yes. Tossey. Alan Tossey. Yes. George Cozer. Yes. Christine. Yes. Dean. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. That's passionately 63. So then going to the next page here. Okay. Several warrant articles that we have not yet addressed. The peg access, I have the numbers from last year over on the right. The peg access is money that comes from the sell companies that use the town towers. And the money is by town bylaw, spent with the help improve parks and that sort of thing. In the past that used to directly go into the town that a few years ago they passed a law and has to go through the journal fund be appropriated by town meetings. So that's what this is all about. And Sandy Pooley does not yet have that number. He's chasing after it. Article 64, appropriate miscellaneous appropriations is indemnification of the police officer indemnification. I'll go back to that article. Yeah, it's, let me just read it to you. It's to see if the town will vote legal defense to appropriate a sum of money to replenish the legal defense fund or to appropriate a sum of money in accordance with the chapter 41 of 100 general laws to indemnify certain retired police officers and firefighters for all reasonable medical and surgical expenses which they incurred or to determine how the money we raise can expended. So this appropriation is for medical expenses under this article. And we have the number from Sandy. So that's 10,759. I think last year it was 10,366 or something like that. So a motion for article 64 is in order. If there are other any questions. Yes. Yes, Peter. In the budget book it says 10,666. That was last year. Now it's 20, it's 2022 what it says. Well, maybe they just put last year's number in. This is today's number. Hot off the presses. Verified with Sandy Puler. I think these numbers, if I can, they're based on a calendar year and they're based on actual numbers. So when the manager puts together his budget in early January, he does not have those numbers yet. So that 10,666 is just a placeholder. The number comes out later, which the chairman has. Okay, though. Oh, is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. You have another question. You have another question, Annie. I had a question. Sorry, Charlie. Okay. Go right ahead. I'm sorry, we've got all these screens up here. I can't see. It's no problem. Somebody just explained to me one more time. We're appropriating to a legal defense fund money for medical expenses. No, actually, sorry. The article, let me just bring the article up and show it to you. Let's see if I can do this, share my screen. Oh, I'm sharing it now. I have to stop to share. So hang on a second. So now I'll share again. While you're doing that, I can say that the legal defense fund doesn't need any more money according to the control. So can you see my screen here? Article 64. No, I'm sorry. Article, it's not the right number. Article 64. Yeah, article 64, right, okay. So it says to see if the town will vote the following and there's a legal defense clause for the legal defense fund. And then there's also indemnification of medical costs to appropriate a sum of money in accordance with provisions of the general laws and to indemnify certain retired police officers and firefighters for all reasonable medical and surgical expenses, which they incurred. So this is under the general law, chapter 41, section 100 B in the actual expenses that were incurred were, let's see what the number was, 10,759. And that's what they're looking for. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Are there other questions? Okay, so if there are no other questions on article 64, let's take a vote. Grant. Aye. Jane. Yes. John Ellis. All right. Yes. Amacaya. Epstein. Epstein, so I have to count now. Okay, Gary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. No. Shailene. Yes. Daryl. Yep. John Deist. Yes. Alan Jones. Yeah. Yes. Annie LaCorte. Yes. Al Tosti. Yes. George Couser. Yes. Christine Jeschler. Yeah. Dean Carmen. Yes. David McKenna. I will respectfully abstain. Okay, so we have two abstentions and we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, voting in favor, Peter. Two abstentions. Thank you. You're welcome. So I need to go back to the screen. So the other, another article that we need to vote is the overlay reserve surplus. Al Tosti, do you want to discuss this as part of the financial subcommittee working group? Al Tosti. I lose out. No, I'm here. Oh, okay. This is a funds from the overlay reserve surplus to go to reduce the tax rate or reduce the tax raise. Yeah. So it's a revenue. I've got $400,000 last long-term five-year plan. That's correct. And it was confirmed today by Sandy. Okay. So maybe you should just explain what it's for how it gets there. Okay. Basically the assessors have the responsibility of setting on the overlay. Doesn't go through town meeting. They just determine it. That's the amount of money that they estimate that they're going to need for all abatements and exemptions that they give, that they have to give after the tax bills go out. So if somebody appeals the value of their home, they pay the tax, they appeal it. The assessors decide, and if the homeowner wins, he'll get an abatement back. But you need to have a chunk of money to have for the, to pay the tax back, the abatement. So they set the overlay. And the overlay, I believe, this year is, I think it's 800,000. It's either eight or six, it's too small. But anyway, that's the amount of money. Now, after a while, the assessors give out, settle all the abatements. Once all the abatements are settled and all the exemptions are settled, if there's money left over, the assessors can release it to be used to reduce taxes. And I think actually they can clump all of them together now. So the assessors have agreed to release $400,000 to be used to reduce the tax rate. Thank you, Al. Any other questions on that? Let me go back and look, I have to speak up. I think I have, here we go. Any questions? No questions. Oh, yeah, what, what, what article is this? What is it? It is article 74, 74. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, on article 74, there are no, if there are no further questions, it'll take a vote for $400,000 for the overlay reserve surplus to be used to reduce taxes. Grant Gibbian. Aye. Shane Blunjell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Aya. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Yes. Jaylene. Yes. Carol. Yeah. John Deis. Yes. Allen. Yes. Any other court? Yes. Al Tosti. Yes. George Cozer. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yes. Dean Kahnerman. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. It's unanimously passed Peter article 64, $400,000. The next article that would be appropriate to consider is Warren article 75, which is an appropriation for the long-term stabilization fund. This is not the override stabilization fund. This is a fund that's that the town traditionally puts $100,000 in. I think the last time I looked, it was about three and a half million dollars. And the last time we used it, I recall there was a flood or something like that, that damaged a bunch of buildings and we needed to get some money out in short order to get the money to service the problem which was not covered, which was part of a deductible, not covered by insurance. So it's kept basically cover short-term, significant short-term emergencies that can't be covered by the finance committee's reserve fund. So last year we put no money into it because of the uncertainties of state aid, et cetera, when we were facing the pandemic and it was not known where we were gonna wind up with our revenue situation. So, but now the town manager wants to go back to the prior practice of putting $100,000 into that stabilization fund. Does anyone wanna make any questions on that or? Charlie, I think that's article 76. Oh, did I blow it? I have a quick question, Charlie. I just got a, you're probably right. You're right, you're right. I think the override's 75. Yes, you're right. So it's 76. Oh, I see, I have two, yeah. I have two 75s on my sheet. All right, it's article 76, Peter. Do you have that? Yes. Okay. So go ahead, Annie. So do we have anything like a policy around a maximum and a minimum in this fund? Like some of the funds? I cannot remember. I do know that I can remember a decade or so ago we stopped putting money in there for several years because the town management thought it was high enough. Alan, Altos did you remember? I don't think there is a set policy on it. It's not a rainy day fund. It's an emergency fund, like Charlie described. And I think under the current circumstances going ahead where everything could be up in the air, it seems to make financial sense to keep going, whether it will be in the future, we'll have to decide. Right, so I mean, I don't want to hang it up I'm happy to work for it. I think it's a good idea, but I think we should consider the possibility we want to develop a policy about a range, I don't know, compared to income or compared to value properties or something that tells us, you know, if we didn't, for some reason didn't have an emergency for 10 years and didn't draw on it and it got really huge, we would need some reason to consider whether it was enough, if that makes sense. Oh, I think that's a great suggestion, Annie. And perhaps we can have our policy working group incorporate that into that thing. Oh, I'm serious. Sure, no, no, I know you're serious. All right, we'll come up with that. And you know, we document it and get it, get it in front of the town manager. We will come up with that in less time. Maybe the select board, I don't know, but somehow get it documented and follow practice there. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can we sum this up a way? I'm sorry, Dean, did I hear you ask questions? Yeah, so I will note on that and I can't find it quick enough. Our appropriation into that account and maintenance of that account at a certain dollar level balance is actually a criteria that Standard & Poor's uses when they rate our bonds. And I cannot remember the underlying fundamentals, but I know there's actually a thought behind the balance and the appropriation that ties into that. Okay, so we should then incorporate that into the policy that there's an effect on our bond rating that is the reason that we do this and therefore a minimum that we should keep in there that affects that rating, something long. Yeah, yes. So funny enough, if I recall and I'd have to go back and look and I'm kind of like scribbling, I'm like looking as quick as I can right now. I believe that we're actually assessed high by Standard & Poor's for having a policy and then deducted points for not having it written down. Okay, good. More motivation to write a policy. Okay, great. Which I will call on Dean to help with. Thank you, Dean. Thank you, Annie. Any further questions on Article 76? Actually, I wonder if I can do this. That's a picture, okay. Any, no further questions on Article 76. So, oh, Makaya, you have your hand up. It was just to see the shortcut of General Law for Chapter 40, Section 5B, like to see what it can be used for or what appropriated, but I can look it up at the law later. But if anybody knows how it can be appropriated. It requires a two thirds vote of town meeting to appropriate, I can tell you that. But to whom, to what entities? I don't know, I mean, emergency requirements. Yeah, it's okay, don't worry, I'll do my homework. Okay. Mr. Chair? Yes, Allen. I think it used to be many years ago that you had to use it for a capital item that you could borrow for such a period of time, but they get rid of that rule in the last public finance emergency in the state. So I think now you could spend it for almost anything. Thank you, Allen. I mean, the last municipal modernization act. No, it was before that. I think it was like in the disaster of 08 or the disaster of 01. Okay, further questions on Article 76, long-term stabilization fund to appropriate $100,000. Okay, no further questions. No, it's been moved in, has it been moved in second? No, it's been moved in second, Grant Givian? Aye. Shane? Yes. John Ellis? Yes. Kaya? Yes. Mary Margaret? Yes. Arif? Yes. Jonathan? Yes. Peter? Yes. Shailene? Yes. Garo Harmer? Yeah. John Deist? Yes. Allen? Yes. Annie? Yes. Allen Tosti? Yes. George? Yes. Christine? Yes. Dean? Yes. David? Yes. That's unanimous. Thank you for Article 76. So, $100,000. The next, let's see, we did that, we did that. So the next article is the use of free cash. This is the number from the most recent five-year plan. It's 50% of the certified free cash. I sent the report on the state's, I don't know who it is, the state, the DOR, yes it was, certified the free cash back around November. And it was about 11.3 million. And that's probably what two times that is. And we have a policy that we have followed on that. And since the policy was developed by Al Tosti, Al, do you wanna subscribe it? Well, we've, I'm not sure if I was the beginning person, sort of in Bob O'Neill, but we've decided, or we always have, we get the certified free cash, we use half and we roll half. And I think the logic behind this is that it's sort of a conservative use of it. In other words, as free cash is going up, we're only using half. And as free cash is going down, we're only using half. So we roll a certain amount, which tends, if you're going down, you're going down slower. And if you're going up, you're going up a little slower. And so it tends to keep a conservative trend over a period of years. And so that's the reason we've done it. I think it's a good policy. And I move favorable action on the 5,659184. Second. So it's been moved in second. And Annie, you have your hand up. Yeah, I just wanted to confirm one thing for myself. And that is that that number is a cumulative number. We didn't actually certify that much free cash in one year. It's over multiple years that we accumulate money in that fund. We're spending closer to the bone than that, correct? That number is an accumulative number, yes. Okay, got it. What is the number again? 5,659,184. So the amount of free cash that we have in the account is actually twice that, 11 million in change. And as Alex explained, the policy that we have followed is to use 50% of it as revenue in any given year. Good with that, Peter? Yeah, it does. Thank you. So any other questions on article 77 use of free cash? Okay, article 77, we take a vote. And moved and seconded for 5,659,184. You know, look at it this way. When you take this vote, you're taking $5.6 million out of the savings account and planning to spend it next year. So it's a significant step. Grant Gibbian. Aye. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Makaya. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yes. Arif. Arif. Austin. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Yes. Jaylene. Yes. Darrell. Darrell. Yeah. John Dyson. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Jenny. Yes. Alan Tosti. Yes. George Kosher. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yeah. Dean Kerman. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. So it is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, in favor one of, 16 in favor one abstention. I don't know if I counted that right, but. I think that should be it. 16 in favor one abstention. Do you have that, Peter? Thank you. Okay. So the other big article there is the Fiscal Stability Stabilization Fund or the Override Stabilization Fund. And in the five-year plan, there's that number of 5,935,481. What we traditionally do is not vote that until the end of the budgeting process, because this is how the budget gets balanced. And if we have some savings in the budgeting process, it means we can reduce the appropriation from that fund into revenue. If we have some untoward news, then we have to take more out of the stabilization fund. And as that Fiscal Stability Stabilization Fund dwindles, we get on a fast track towards going back to the voters for an override. And if the override doesn't happen, then we have to do other draconian things. So we won't address that article tonight. Let's see what's the next thing here. Okay. So I think we have two updates slash corrections that have come up. One, Alan Jones, do you want to address the, I think Sandy Pooler sent you an updated spreadsheet. Yeah, I sent this out Monday with the details. And this is just one of those, for years I've been saying it'd be nice if we all played off the same sheet of music, but the problem is if you do that and there's a mistake, you're not likely to catch it. So the good thing is that my spreadsheets are completely different than Sandy's spreadsheets. And when they don't reconcile, it looks like there's a problem. Well, in the library budget we voted, I think last week the longevity was counted twice in the revised salary. So what I'd like to move is that we reduced the library budget by 17,762 to 2,644,669. 2,644, what was it? 669. 669. 2,644,669. And then to balance that, the collective bargaining article, the salary reserve goes to 671,485. So those work together. Okay, so this is basically a spreadsheet error that Alan caught and Sandy has agreed with and has corrected these numbers. Are there any questions or any discussion? I see Peter Howard's hand up. Let's take it down. Okay. Any other questions? Okay, I don't see any. Therefore, we're gonna take a vote on a revote on the library budget and collective bargaining, reducing the library budget by 17,762 dollars to 2,644,669 in the changing the collective bargaining to 671,485, is that correct, Alan? Yes. Okay, no further questions. So we'll vote. Grant Gibbian. Aye. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Katia. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yeah. Karif. Yeah. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Yes. Shailene. Yes. Darrell. Yeah. John Deis. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Annie. Yes. Al Tosti. Yes. George Couser. Yes. Christine Dechler. Yes. Ian Corman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Okay, thank you very much. That is done. Now, Micaiah, you had a small change in the paying classification plan. Do you wanna explain what that was? Sure. In my spirit of Al Jones, I caught an administrative error in the spreadsheet of Karen Malloy, the human resource director, as we're looking at the reclassification of the senior cork and typist. It was by $20. So I, because the error already was corrected in our minutes, I think it was voted in appropriately. You think it was voted appropriately? Tonight, yeah. I made the change over in the minutes. Okay. I see. So Micaiah has changed the minutes so that they, the correct number is in the minutes that we voted last week. And I guess the question is, do we wanna take another voter? Do you accept this as an administrative change? I think we should accept it as an administrative change. Is it up to me? If there's no objection, we'll just do that. I'm gonna figure that as well. I have a question though. Yes, Peter. Micaiah, what is the proper number? Thank you. So the vote that we, the total that we voted on last, or on Monday was 63,474. The correct number is 63,454. 63,454. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Micaiah. It's taken care of administratively. Good work. All right. And then we have introduced a number of working groups this year. And I was hoping that we could just quickly go down the... Charlie, excuse me. Yes, Peter. How about Article 66, the traffic study? Oh, you're right. We didn't, then we put on the table and you were gonna investigate that, right? I'm ready to report on it. All right. Let's then go to Article 66, the traffic study. I'll remind the committee that at the hearing last month, we were told that the Transportation Advisory Committee had investigated the intersection of Appleton and Park Avenue and determined that it's unsafe. They looked at data and so forth. But I guess they feel they're not competent to consider the effects of a change on that intersection with other intersections on that side of an Appleton. And so they wanted to hire a professional to look into that for $7,000. At the time of the testimony of the hearing, the hearing, I mean, the advisory committee had not yet voted on it, but they have since voted on it. We question whether they were following proper procedures. For example, had the select board asked for this study and the answer to that one is yes, they have. They had. However, the select board is not happy about dealing with this in town meeting. They don't think that's the right way to go about it. The town manager, in the meantime, the town manager, or rather, I couldn't get ahold of him, but Alan Tosti got ahold of Sandy Pooler and they agree that DPW can absorb this cost. So, and incidentally, the tactical attack has about $3,000 in their coffers carried over from last year and added to this year's $2,000 a year appropriation. However, they don't have a $5,000. So, essentially, the town manager says the DPW can handle it. And I'd like to move no action on this article. Second. Okay, so it has been tabled. So I'm gonna take it administratively off the table and assume that if we vote on this, everyone has agreed that it's off the table. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know if you're allowed to do these things under this open meeting law, under the Zoom rules, but we'll try to do it. So the motion has been made and seconded for no action on article 66. Are there further questions or comments? John Ellis. So does that mean we're not gonna have to deal with this town meeting or they're gonna move it or how's this gonna be handled? Or we're gonna have to discuss this as a town meeting or is it just... If we vote no action, it'll go into the moderators. What do they call that? His consent group of articles. And unless somebody calls out that they wanna discuss it, it won't even be discussed. We'll have a comment, won't we? People agree. Well, we can put a comment in our report, yes. Okay, good. Thanks. Micaiah. Thank you. Is this the intersection where the young man got killed, right? No, it was the one on Park Avenue. On Park Avenue. I think it wasn't the penalty on Mass Avenue. Yes. Yeah. This is the one by the nursing home on Park Avenue a second. Okay, I have a comment unrelated, but I'm viewing somehow John Dice's screen. So this is pretty odd. What happened? That's my screen. Oh, no, I can see your screen, which has the shared thing, but then all the people are gone. All right, whatever. Weird. All right, might be on my end. I can't see like all of you guys anymore. Charlie, you could probably unshare at this point. Yeah, I can't. No, yeah. Now we're seeing John's screen. I just let John back into the meeting, so I don't know what could have happened here. I don't know, but we have to, I think you could. John, could you unshare your screen? I don't think I, can you hear me? Yeah. Yes. We can start reading your email, John. You don't want to do that. Charlie, I've lost everybody, but yourself and Annie. Well, you got the best of us. Careful there. Very good, very good. Probably true, actually. I don't know what we do here. Can you share, John? Can you share and then unshare? I don't want to leave the meeting. Okay, then come back. Okay. Maybe John was in there. I'm good now. Yeah, sounds like he's still here. Okay. So we're on a vote of no action on article 66. Are there any other questions? Okay. Grant Gibbian. Vote aye. And aye is for no action. So Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Makaya Healy. Yes. Mary Margaret. Yeah. Aretha Daria. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. Yes. Brian Beck. Oh, he's not here. I'm sorry. Peter Howard. Yes. Shailene. Yes. Daryl. Yes. John Deist. He's probably not here. He's here twice. He's here twice now. Okay. Still signed in 12. Okay, we're gonna skip over John Deist. Are we? Are we done? Am I right now? You're in here twice, John. You gotta get rid of one of your screens. I don't know how to do it. Are you voting yes, John? No action, John? Yes. Thank you. Alan Jones. Yes. Annie. Yes. Anastasi. Yes. George Cozer. Yes. Christine Dechler. Yeah. Dean Karman. Yes. David McKinnon. Dean. Yes. And David. Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Peter, for following up on that. We're voting no action on. So somebody's got their microphones on and it's echoing here. So. Charlie. Yes, John. Yeah. What's the status on our consideration of article 25? Let's see. I have to figure out how to find that. Give me the real estate transfer fee. Oh, we're waiting for something to happen with the board of selection. And I think we discussed. That. The status was that. It's not an appropriation article. There are two, there are two articles. That are still hanging around like that. One is article 25. And the other is. There's a affordable housing article 21, I think, which is also not an appropriation article. And. And so I think. With the. I think the real estate transfer fee. We didn't, we didn't actually vote on this, but I think we sort of came to a consensus that it was a no report. And we're waiting for the select men to take action. Okay. Charlie, am I okay now? I'm just here once now. I hope. You're good, John. There you go. You're good, John. If Alan Jones says you're good, you're good. Sorry about that. Anyway, thank you, Charlie. So at some point, we'll just. Formally voted as no report. Yeah, or just the announcements. Okay. Can we take a position of no position on 21 now. On 21 21 is the. Okay. This does not ask for an appropriation. Article 21. Well, I don't know. It just has not an appropriation. It's not our article. Yeah, why was it on our list? I moved no report. Yeah. Second. Okay. It's moved and seconded for no report there. If there are no objections, we'll, we'll pass on it on a vote on that and just assume that everybody is a. Consensus. Yeah. Okay. Good. So article 21 is going to be no report. You have that Liz. Thank you. Yes, I have it. Sorry, I was muted. That's okay. All right. So we still need to find out what the board of select winners. Are going to say about that other article. And there was another article, article 23, which also is on our list is to see if the town will vote to study how to implement an affordable housing overly district. We don't need to take any action on that either because that's a study. And there's no, there's no appropriation. Okay. So. I think that brings us to the last, I don't know how much time we have left here. 924. I was hoping that we could get some, some updates from the money on the working groups. And I wanted to remark that earlier this year. I. Expanded or continued and expanded what I call a leadership working group. Now I used to have this sort of group of. Himself in the three. Vice chairs in. Oh, and the Peter Howard secretary as a sort of advisory group. I expanded this to include. Altos. He was as former chairman. Annie on her work with the it. Group because it was pretty instrumental in. Trying getting us launched this year in the. In the zoom era. Jonathan Wallach as our delegate to the. Capital planning committee. So we have a couple of meetings. And mostly discussed. Just how, how the things would operate this year, including the formation of the policy information systems, operations, research, communications, et cetera, working groups. And. The most valuable thing to me. With this group is. That they have very generously and cordially kept me from doing anything stupid. Which is, which I think is. A major accomplishment. At least so far anyway. So I don't even know if we'll have another opportunity. This year to meet again, but perhaps we will. But I just wanted to bring you up to speed on that. So. Now, Christine is leading the policy group. And Annie information systems. Now on operations research and a reef. On communications. And then Dean is leading this sort of ad hoc group. We. We formed a couple of weeks ago to look into the town's. Expense reporting. And which I noticed, by the way. These large jumps. From. The actual. To the fiscal 21 budget. We're also showing up in the water and sewer budget. That, that grant. Took us through today. So I think that, that investigation. Is still pretty critical for a lot of reasons. So I would like to ask if, if we could just get a verbal update on what's going on in these working groups. We start with you, Christine. The policies and procedures working group has met. Several times. And the plan is to continue to meet. We view our. Task is two fold. The four or two phases. The first phase is to gather together. In one document, what we've been referring to as a training manual. Which we hope will encapsulate. All of. What it is we do and how we do it. And what we do it. What, what we do. From. What we're empowered to do by state law and town by law, the town manager act, how we organize our meetings. And what we're trying to do. We would want everyone to be knowledge of, knowledge of knowledgeable about. It's a big bite. But we are working our way through it and people are. Taking parts of the project and working on them. And we hope to. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. But moving. What we were thinking is at some point when we have pretty much exhausted what we've been able to do, we would want to open it up to. The entire finance committee to look at it. And to review it and add to it. And, and. Give us. Your thoughts. In the second phase is once we've figured out what it is. What it is we may want to do in the future, what we should be doing in the future. And we feel like doing phase one is the necessary steps to be able to. Thoughtfully do phase. Two. And we see our, our task is. It's somewhat a long term. It won't be something that we'll be finished with, within the next few months. But. At the same time, I think there's a desire in everyone's part to. To. Keep the ball rolling and to move on to phase two as soon as we can. I don't know if that. Fairly. And accurately reflects what we've been doing. Al Jones, Annie. John Ellis, Shane, if you want to add anything to that, please do. I would only say that was sort of inspired by the ATFC handbook that. Al Tosti has edited for many years and this. This training manual would be an adjunct to that to the things. Specific to Arlington, like the 50% of free cash. And how we come up with our OPEB number and all the, you know, little esoteric things that. Aren't necessarily standard across the state. Okay. Brookline also has a. Handbook specific to Brookline might, might be interesting to look at. Can you acquire a copy of that for us? When we got a copy. I guess it's online. Okay. Great. Well, thank you, Christine. And that's, that's, that's good. It's wonderful. We, I hope when town meeting starts, you know, we'll have these short meetings prior to town meeting. And sometimes there's not too much going on there. So hopefully we can follow up on, on some of these, these items at that time. So Andy, do you want to give us a little update on the information systems? Yeah. How are the information systems doing guys? I love it. I love it. Anyways. So the committee hasn't met since we started, you know, our regular meetings. I think what we've all been doing is just trying to observe how this has been going for you or the bumps in the road are what people struggle with. And my theory is to reconvene everybody. Post this most intense phase of finance committee. To review where we're at, see what we need to do to improve how all of this works. And consider what it will be like to be back in person and what that might change. And then to look at the longer term things that we're concerned about coordination between us and the finance director. And to make our reporting easy. And to be sure that our numbers are always matching across the two offices. And then to look at, you know, what is the cumulative data and history for analysis that we want to maintain. And use to enhance our reporting to the town and our understanding of sort of our financial past and our financial future. So. Thank you, Andy. I can tell you that your, your work, at least from my perspective has been really productive. Actually Liz, just an hour or two before the meeting tonight, Liz and I were working on a Excel spreadsheet together in real time on, on SharePoint. So, you know, it works. It's really a productivity enhancement. No, I, but I have to give credit to the team. You know, I, I didn't. It's been really interesting to work with the group of people that I'm working with. And, and all our different sort of perspectives and skill sets have been part of what has made this all click. So I got to give credit to Daryl Grant and George and Alan for you know, making sure that we dot all our eyes across LRTs and consider all the options. Great. Any questions or comments for Andy or the group? Charlie, if I could just add sort of a human interest piece. I'm actually working on a SharePoint roll out in my job, which is interesting how these kind of cross pollinate. Been able to use some of the things that we worked with on this roll out on this. This other roll out. Well, that's good. That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to comment on the operations research effort? To date, we have not met yet met. My plan. Is to. Look at how this year goes with the finance committee deliberations. And then to look at town meeting. And what town meeting. And then the committee meets probably sometime in mid to late May. And starts discussing what would be a good research project. Sort of taking the lead from. The police. Report. That was done so well by Christine and, and. Daryl and. Oh, who else is on that. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything. Jonathan. Okay. And, and following that pattern, but. You know, that took a lot of work. And so I want to see. And I'll be open to suggestions from the committee. But I'd like to see where the focus is not only of the finance committee, but on the. From the town meeting. And then get cranking after the town meeting. Okay. On community. Any, any questions for our suggestions? Yeah, just shoot me an email. Okay. On the communication side, a reef. Yeah, I'd like to share my screen. I don't know if I can do it or I think I can. Okay. So you can see this. So this was the. Just a reminder as to what Charlie had sent us. I've got Mary Margaret and Alan Jones on the team. And we've had a few conversations. Right. Isn't she leaving on the team? She dropped off and then she hasn't re-engaged. She's a honorary member, I suppose. I put it out as an honorary member. She was. Present on it. She'll be a welcome to join. And I still need to convince. Or tell Makaya that she's a member already, but I haven't told her yet. But we need people. But these guys have been with me. Well, it's excellent team effort. Let me give you a quick update. So on the recruiting side, we recruited Makaya and we'll bring her on this team as well. If she's willing. Of course, we don't twist arms too much. But thank you. And thank you of course for Annie for introducing her and all the rest. So that story continues. On the recruiting side, we had started some conversations with the Arlington art links. We put that on hold because I think recruiting efforts for currently have been satisfied. So that's okay. But there are other efforts that we are putting underway that will, that'll help us in the long run because recruiting is a long, long-term process. So I'll get to that in my point three, the point two, really what I want to point out is education. And as you know, George Kosher, George Kosher did a terrific job explaining the long-range planning discussion that he presented and we believe that bringing that message out into the town and helping them understand the implications of that is very important. I have a typo. I hate typos, sorry. So to have George and with his permission, what we are planning on doing is having a Q&A style video interview with ACMI's James Milan. So instead of George Kosher just, you know, presenting it as a lecture, it's probably better done as an Q&A. So this, this is being coordinated. And perhaps Alan, myself and Mary Margaret and George have to get together and push a bit more on this, but we want to get this done before town meeting so that it can be posted and people can be educated around that. So that's one of the efforts. The other bigger piece is really how do we get the word out and for people to get to know us? And there are various efforts around that. Give full credit to Mary Margaret to putting together a number of questions which we are going to put together into a survey, which we'll send to all of you. And I think the survey is important because it'll help us understand why did we join, what are the reasons for staying on this committee, etc. And this, once we have that it can serve as a cheat sheet as you and I go around town and talk to people and get them to understand FinCom or get them excited about being part of FinCom that can serve as a cheat sheet as to, we can point to, you know, members on this, on this committee and say, look, such and such joined and went on to become such and such and did amazing things. And you guys are all awesome. So this is easy. So and then, of course, we can also bring to light some of the challenges. Mary Margaret is a really a challenge and a problem solver. So she brings forth a lot of challenges. Now let her put that into the survey as well. It's not easy. We all know we spend a lot of time and effort and nobody gets quote unquote paid and that's understood. But for others, it's hard to understand and as to why we do this. So perhaps highlighting that is important. Finally, one of the idea, the other ideas that we've come up with and we need to execute on is having, we've got these terrific personalities that I'm looking at right now. And all of you need to be highlighted and to get the word out for people to know us. We are not these bad people, but we all have backgrounds for personal and professional and we have reasons for being here and perhaps using James Milan and using a series. I know Annie's done some, some videos. I've watched them with great intent and have been amazed. So we will be doing Annie. I like pumping people up. I'm in a good mood. There was a very few, but, but anyways, the, you know, the point being that we've got, I don't want to name the names. Every one of you has got terrific backgrounds and I'd love to have each one of us speak and, and be highlighted. And perhaps we can make it into a monthly series of some sorts. So that's underway. So that's sort of the things that we've been doing so far. And we're trying to get into a cadence of meeting at least once every three or four weeks and pushing forward. So that's our update. Thank you, Arif. Very interesting. Any comments or questions, observations for Arif? Okay. Thanks, Arif. That's pretty exciting and good work with Micaiah. I think it's pretty clever the way you're being recruited or, and then you trap her into the communications working group, you know, in public. Okay. Dee, do you have any comments on your expense analysis group? Not much at the moment. We were, the plan is for our, our four person group to meet internally to get our ducks in a row. And then, then we'll go forward and meet with town management. Okay. Admittedly, the first step got slowed down by me because after we scheduled a meeting, I had to cancel it because of my own schedule. So our hope, my hope is over the next couple of weeks. You know, we can get back together, have our internal meeting and then we'll be able to meet with the town's management. Okay. Good. Well, thank you everybody for, you know, talking to me. You know, it's all pretty exciting. The only, the only comment I'll make is that, I think any started with, I'm not trying to pump you up in, you know, but you, you're the first one on this information systems thing. And you've set a pretty high bar because I think you're changing the way we were all working and the things we're doing. So, and I know, I don't just mean you. I mean, you and you and your colleagues there. Okay. It's pretty, it's a sort of late 20 to 10. I don't think there are any more items that I have to. Put before you tonight. We've got a lot done. I think we're going to have to have a meeting on Monday evening for two reasons. One is we need to go, we need to vote the water sewer budget. And secondly, I'm hoping that we have some feedback and some resolution or some direction on the school budget. And, you know, we'll see. I, I, it's, I'm completely, you know, I'm not in the middle of it. I don't know where, where it's all going right now, but we'll see what happens. Mr. Chairman. Yes. Dean. So. I think we'll be ready on Monday for the school budget. We'll probably be kind of close. So Shane, Shailene and I are scheduled to meet. With the school budget subcommittee on Monday at. I'm going to say four. Sounds like about the time. So we'll meet with them from like four to five. I have like a super hard stop because I have soccer practice for my kid at five 30 and I'm the coach. I kind of have to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. And then, and then at seven 30, I'll be here. So hopefully Shane and Shailene can carry. I hope you get something to eat. In the interim. That's why I shut the camera off for like two minutes during every session. So. Yes. Mr. Chair. Well, yes. Mr. Chair, just. I just wanted to mention putting my doctor doom. Mask back on everyone should Google Belmont override. And. Oh. Belmont. Turned out a six point six and a half million dollar override yesterday by 12 percentage points. Yeah, but they're Belmont. I'd say you busted on my hometown. They also. Lovely vocational high school. Sorry. Yeah. No, I think there are things to learn by looking at the yes site and the yes website and no website and the finance site. I think that's a good explanation. Explanatory document. So. The doctor to the side. I am. I am hopeful that there's going to be some dialogue between town management and school management. On some of these budget issues. And I don't know if that's going to result in anything productive. By Monday night or not, but it may. I don't know if that's going to result in anything productive. So. You know, Dean and. Sean. Shane and Charlie, you know, going to be. Dating into the, the facts behind the numbers. And we'll get some feedback on that as well. So. And then we'll do another scan. Just to make sure we've covered. All the. Articles to make sure that. The ones that. This will be basically Peter does a great job at this. Making sure that we voted them that if we're, if we're not, if we haven't voted them, there must be no reports or whatever. But that, that would sort of wrap us up. Now on the 14th. We expect by the 14th, we expect to have the house ways and means. Feedback on the. State budgets. And that'll determine. The budget. That will be. Basically the first cut of state aid that's coming back. Into the budget. That will inform. You know, where we stand. And it's also going to be information for the long range planning committee meeting, which I think is scheduled for the 16th. So. I just please keep that reserved as well. The 14th of April. And then. I just wanted to move you to participate in some support in developing the. The. Finance, finance report to town meeting. And we're going to start to accelerate that work over the next couple of, couple of days. Because town meeting is coming up. Votes on Saturday. Everybody should go out and vote. And. And town meeting is on. Is it the 26th or the 28th? 26. Monday, the 26th, right? Yeah. So we're, we're coming up to town meeting time. So we have to, we have to get cracking on the. Finance committee meeting. That about covers it for me. Anybody else have any inputs or comments? Yes. I just want to comment on election day. The number of the polls open from AM to APM. Okay. Thank you for that. That's interesting. Peter, you wanted to say something. Yes, I do. I'm sorry to, to have been late today. Kind of a long story, but anyway. Was, was a crap the first. Speaker. Yes. Grant. Grant. Grant. Grant. We immediately after. Taking roll call. Any, any volunteer to be. Recording secretary pro tem. Yeah. Probably took some minutes. You might know it's Peter. That'd be great. And then. We went into the water sewer budget. Okay. Thank you. All right. Mr. Chairman. Yes. So with, since we do have. 11 minutes left or 12. Would now be a good time. To make my annual motion regarding cleaning up clerical errors. In the budget. In the budget book. I mean, in the presentation. I think that, that would be in order. All right. I've read it down. So moved. When putting together the 2020. 21 finance committee report to town meeting, the committee authorizes its chair. With the approval of two vice chairs. To correct all clerical and administrative mistakes. That are causing the overall budget to be out of balance. Without having to report back to the full committee. They're a second. Second. Discussion. Okay. So I have to take a vote. I have a question. I'm sorry. I'm not good at shorthand. Could you send me what you just. That's why I wrote it down. So I was just emailing it to you. Yes. Excellent. Any other questions? Okay. On the motion. Made. Was there a second? Second. Discussion. Okay. So I have to take a vote. I'm sorry. Second. Second. Second. Okay. So the motion made by. Dean and seconded with respect to correcting the. Budget documents going into the. Annual town meeting. We'll take a vote. Grant gibbian. Hi. Hi. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. You lost him. Okay. No, it was not. Yeah. Alright. John. Yes. Yes. Gary. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Peter. Shaleen. Yes. Darrell. Yeah. John Deist. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. Andy. What court. Yes. yes Christine Dichler yes Dean Carmen yes and David McKenna yes thank you that's unanimous vote on Dean Carman's motion which he has read and will be in the minutes okay I think a motion to adjourn is in order so moved so moved any any objection hearing no objections we're adjourned thank you very much Bye. Bye.