 So this open meeting of the Oregon Finance Committee is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. In order to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus we've been advised and directed to spend public gatherings and assess 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 by posted with the agenda materials for this meeting allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely. So long as regional public access is afforded so the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. This meeting will feature public comment only in writing by email to mgradleyattown.onentent.ma.us.com. For this meeting, we are convening by video conference via the Zoom app that's posted on the town's website which also identifies how the public may join. Please notice the meeting is being recorded, and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Therefore please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. All meeting materials have been provided members of this body and are available at the town website unless otherwise noted. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless the chair notes otherwise. The chair will introduce the speaker on the agenda and after they conclude their remarks the chair will invite members to provide any comments questions or motions please hold them through the recognized and your name is called. Remember to mute your phone please when you're not speaking and also please remember to speak clearly 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 you wish to engage in close with other members please do so through the chair. Due to the size of my laptop screen I may not be able to see all the members at once. If someone has raised their hand and I have not noticed I hear by request that Tara Bradley or any court. Please bring this to my attention. Finally each vote taken. This meeting will be taken by roll call. And we will we will sort of shortly take that roll call. We also expect some guests tonight, Dr. Bo Quillen and also the chief financial officer. At the minute man whose name I don't have handy but we look forward to hearing from them both. So now I'd like to ask the members of the committee to identify themselves as present when I call their name. I didn't hear Grant chain bundle here. John Ellis here. Here. Brian Beck here. Arif Padaria here. Good morning or night. Good morning. That's 6am. So if you like we had so there. Jonathan walk. Shailene. Focus. Here. Andy the court. Here. Alan Jones here. George closer here. Bill Keller. Al Tossi here. Wanda Nascimento here. Christine Deschler here. Carmen here. And David. Here. Thank you. So we have a quorum. And we'll proceed with the meeting as described in the agenda. I have a couple of comments I'd like to make. I know you're all waiting with faded breath. So first of all, no doubt you've seen the email from. The city of town manager chapter lane this morning indicated indicating that he's resigning from his position as of the middle of June. From my perspective, I think this is a sad news for the town, as I think that he has been a strong and innovative manager for Arlington. And we've done well under his stewardship. He's not leaving to take another position within the city or town, but rather to assess the direction of his life, his family, his goals. I'm sure you all join me in wishing him well. And I'm hoping that we'll see him before the committee before we adjourn for town meeting. I think that Arlington will be able to recruit a new town manager by that time, but the town has a strong department manager cohort and good deputy town management personnel, and we'll get good support from the select board. Arlington is a well run community and will manage the transition successfully as it has done in the past. I think that's raised the importance of the finance committee scrutiny of budgets and warrant articles, as we approach town meeting. We also had distributed by Tara, a letter from Dr. Holman on the high school status, which is, which is good news. Dean Carmen, would you have any comments you'd like to make about that where we are in the, I believe we're on schedule and, and probably under budget, is that true. So that that is true. I mean, the only caveat to under budget is we're under budget because our actual interest rate on the bond offering is lower than the budgeted interest rate. So we're spending about the same amount that we thought we would on the project as you know what these projects. When the, when you save this when they save money and when they, when they go over budget on one area they cut from another. And then the reverse occurs when they are under budget on area they add back so the total dollars usually stay the same, but the interest rate is lower so yeah I mean the first phase is in. And now we go to phase two, which is like ripping that section down behind the new building, and then they'll build another section and we'll, we'll repeat but you know as I, as I let it quickly in the email I sent out it is. It's an exciting day for a, you know, a project that this committee has championed for the better part of like six, seven years now. You know, I would say I remember when two former members one, Steve to Corsi who's known the site board and Carolyn white would talk about when they were students at Arlington high in the 80s and we had, you know, sort of not gotten the building done at that point and it resulted in like weird columns in the classroom and and hallways that went to nowhere and things like that. So, you know it's a it's a good day for Arlington. Christine, is there going to be a time when the public can go view that building. I haven't heard yet I've been waiting to see that I think they were just just the timing didn't allow for trying to get the kids in right now. Okay, thank you. Another comment is that we'll find out later but the Christine did tell us last meeting that the DPW budget might be postponed tonight. If it is we'll just take it up another night. There's also, and Tara might have something to say about this later. There is now a numbered draft warrant on the website. I haven't caught up on all my emails but I don't know if it's been distributed enough but if you go to the town website. You can get that numbered warrant downloaded and you've got it. There's still a draft in. We will be correlating our T numbering system of the last meeting with the number system on the warrant and have another reading will probably wind up doing that at the end of the meeting tonight as opposed to earlier. It's not indicated on the website and it hasn't come up in discussion yet but I want to give you a heads up that they'll likely will be a special town meeting within the town meeting. We've, I'm sure, town meeting members and finance committee members that have been around for a while seeing this in the past. There may be in the special town meeting to financial matters, which we will need to address. First, there's a plan for an article regarding private way betterment revolving funds and put it simply the article on that private way betterment system, which allows the town to do repairs on private ways was created. I don't know probably decades ago in the revolving fund is is just probably too small for current efforts. So we, we need to look at expanding the size of revolving fund and explain expanding the amount of capital in it. The way the system works is that the town does the repairs and then the the butters pay for it and they either pay for an alumsum or over time or or through their taxes. So that spread out payment system puts a demand on working capital cash in order to pay vendors, and that's what needs to be addressed. So we probably Sophie and Dave kind of will discuss this later tonight on one of the questions that they've been pursuing, but we may wind up having to transferring the $1 million in the reserve fund that was in less years or in this current year's budget and not used of back into the override stabilization fund or someplace else in any event. We'll discuss that a little bit later later tonight when we get to it. So those are basic basically the comments that I wanted to make this anyone have any questions about these things. We'll get to that tonight okay. Minutes. We have the minutes of February 16th isn't there. Yes, I've, I've, I just sent that out last night so my apologies to everyone for that I've heard back from a few folks, and I have those. I have not heard back from eagle eyes. So I didn't know if he had any for me, but those are the usual folks who have comments. So, I can show them now the comments, what yes please can you put them up on the screen. Thank you. So, starting from the top, we had updates to the police budget review area that came in from Darrell. Can you go to a screen with on that. Yep, better. No, it didn't change the didn't change the document doesn't matter. That's okay. Any any questions on any of these these were all Darrell's corrections which we since he gave the presentation we know that they're correct. Okay, want to move on. The next section is planning and community development I receive these from Sophie. Okay, and moving on. And then the next the last update is just the addition of the presentation that Darrell gave as a reference document. Okay, great. So, I think we're prepared to have a motion. Well, any questions or discussions on the minutes of February 16. I have a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Oh, there a second. Second moves and seconded any further discussion. Okay, we're going to a vote grant to be in. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Hi, Hailey. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Are you fed area. Yes. So if you may go out so. Yes. Jonathan wallet. Chalene. Darrell Harmer. Yes. Any record. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. George closer. Yes. No color. No color. Oh, he's not here. Not here. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Christine. Yeah. Dean Kerman. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Okay. And minutes are bashing it unanimously. So the next, I think we should. Postpone as second reading of the. Warren article to later in the meeting, because we now have several different documents to deal with. So. Is, is Dr. Here. Yes, he is. And team. And team. Okay. So here, Charlie. Thank you. So Dr. I'd like, like to. Ask if you would want to make some introductions of your team. And then with your presentation. But I would like to make a comment. First. And that is, I understand that you are retiring this year. I think the school committee have selected. The incoming superintendent. And I just wanted to say that. I have personally, and I'm pretty sure the finance committee and the arrogant town meeting has appreciated. What you've done for a minute, man. High school system over the past. 10 years, 12 years. I don't really. 15 Charlie. 15 years. Okay. 15 years. I mean, it's, it's been like. I know this is an overused expression, but it was a breath of fresh air when you joined the school. I know. You know, great, great, taking great strides to improve the curriculum and the academic performance. And then to sort of cap off your. Career there. You have managed to. Totally rebuild the. The facilities into a modern. Complete. And exciting environment. So. I would just like to congratulate you. And all the accomplishments you've made. And I want to do this before we start attacking you on the budget. Yeah, you know. And these comments don't mean that we're not going to be critical of. The huge increases that I saw when I was looking at the budget. But in all seriousness, you have done a wonderful job. And I personally want to extend my thanks. And I'm sure. There may be other people in the committee that want to say something as well. No, thank you. Very kind words. I appreciate it. So why don't you proceed and. Yes. Your team and then go on with the presentation. So I have with me the assistant superintendent of facilities. And operations. Rich. I can. Our business manager. Nikki Andre. And of course, you know, Michael Ruderman is your. Representative on the school committee from. Michael, I didn't. I didn't see you on the screen here. This is. Let me. Excuse me for interrupting. But. I still don't see Michael. I believe I'm here. He's there. Oh, there you are. Okay. So for those new members of the committee, Michael Ruderman is the. School, a minimum school committee board member. Representative from Arlington. And as a. As a dedicated energetic citizen in a lot of other areas as well. Glad to have you, Michael. I'm sorry. Thank you, Charlie. I was just dealing with a small screen here and I missed that. That's all right. Maybe you should get a bigger computer. I. I should. Or better glasses. I don't know which. Yeah. Oops, let me go to the slide show part. There we go. That look all right. Can you see that Charlie? Yes, I can. Thank you very much. Okay. So, you know, I appreciate your kind words and it's been a. It's been an interesting 15 years. I really appreciate all the support. And I appreciate the, the, the tough questions too. After I go through the Arlington Fincom, I'm ready for anybody. So. I appreciate it. Overall, our operating capital budget is up a little less than 5%. But our assessments to our member towns are up about 15% on average. And I'll. Explain why that is. So our objectives for the budget this year, we're really as every budget is to protect the safety and health of our staff. Continue to deliver high quality career and technical education. Advance the minimum academy model. So we're preparing for. We're preparing for the increase enrollment. Or the capacity to have more enrollment because we've already exceeded the design enrollment of the school. Our athletic fields will be fully online in April. So we're preparing for. The management of those fields as well as facility rentals. And we should be closing out the MSBA project in FY 23. We're planning to do a three year contract with our staff. Health insurance. You may recall Minuteman is part of a. A health trust. With four other vocational schools. They haven't set their rates. The final rate yet, but we're planning on a 10% increase. And then as you would expect increases in supplies and materials. Utilities. We're also planning on releasing a couple of work site travel buses for the vocational programs. And continuing to fund our capital stabilization account. So if you break it out a little bit more, the. Operating request is up about six and a half percent. What I call the operating capital. That's mainly for the ESCO lease as well as the. Lighting on the new synthetic fields. And then we're planning to do a three year contract. With the MSBA project that because of the way that we've borrowed and the rates that Dean was referring to earlier. Is down for next year. When you look at the Arlington assessment, the total assessment, including the debt is almost $8 million. The debt service is 1.7. That's been excluded. By town meeting. And really the story of Minuteman. You can see a steady increase in member district enrollment from just the nine member towns. And a corresponding decrease in non-member enrollment. We're projecting a little over 700 students for next fall. And I'll remind folks that the design enrollment of the school was 628. So enrollment has shifted fundamentally. And for the foreseeable future. We're going to be having a school district that's funded entirely from member district. Or enrolled by member district students and funded by the nine member towns. That's a big change. From the last 35 to 40 years in Minuteman where a lot of revenue was realized. From out of district tuition. And beginning a few years ago from an out of district capital fee. That we were successful with your help in getting approved through the department of N. N. So there's a lot going on in this slide, but I'm trying to tell a little bit of a story here. You can see this blue line across the top. That's the millions of dollars we've had every year. To offset member town assessments. And you can see at the bottom here, it goes to 880 to 1.2. That's the money that we receive from our capital fee. And you can see that is trending down as well. And that's the amount of revenue that we've had. That's the amount of revenue that we've had out of district tuition of any substance. Sometimes we get transfer students in and that's how an out of district student might be in for a year or two. And you can see in sort of the orange bars, the corresponding increase in member town, total enrollment. This aqua bar is the member town enrollment. And then non-member town enrollment is down significantly. And I'll show you a slide about the trends for next fall. So what I tried to do in this slide was to track the enrollment and the assessment increase. You may recall, I'm sure you do recall. We have a new regional agreement at that regional agreement calls for a four year rolling average. And some communities that have had big spikes in enrollment this year, not in terms of numbers, but in percentages. That spike didn't transfer a line one to one with their increase in assessment because they're using that four year rolling average. You can see Arlington had a 15% increase in enrollment and a little bit bigger increase in the total assessments. And that of course is due to the nuances in the funding cap in the funding formula for assessments, which has a number of components, including factors set by the state. This is just a per pupil assessment projected for next year. Obviously with more students and pretty modest budget increases over the last 15 years. It's coming more in line and actually less than some vocational schools that we're traditionally compared to. Arlington enrollment has nearly doubled in six years from 111 students or 115 students back in 2017-18 school year. We're projecting 222 for the fall. And if we look at these trends and look at our application process and admissions process for the coming school year, which all applications, the deadline was last week. We had a total of 402 applicants. 303 of them from just our nine member towns. And we still take out of district applications because we're required to and we go through the process with them, but it's unlikely any will get in. So applications are up 24% just over last year. They're up over 100% since FY 19. And the class that we currently have as freshmen, they're up over 100% of these students are from our nine member towns. This just shows the downward trend in out of district tuition and capital fee revenue. That's part of our revenue plan, which is in the budget book. So you can see our non-assessment revenue is down almost, well, it's down 19% for FY 23. Again, that's just a review of our budget and the increases for requested to get a little deeper into the budget. We are adding some new staff, a couple of professional support folks. These are folks who may be school psychologists, school adjustment counselor to provide for the social and emotional wellbeing of our students. We're adding a programming and web teacher. That was a single teacher department. We're adding a robotics and automation aid, an HR clerical support specialist and a reading aid. We are not refilling some positions. So the net increase in FTE next year is only 1.5. We didn't have any active layoffs obviously, but we didn't refill some positions. And we've had real trouble finding a logistics engineering instructor. I don't know a reef if you can help me with that. Some of our priorities in career tech ed, the animal science program started this year, very popular, our logistics engineering program. We just received another grant through the capital skills grant to continue to develop that program, adding equipment, shop and material equipment increases across the board, workplace safety gear and clothing for all students. And our student credentialing costs. I mentioned this in highlighted because that's an important part of Minuteman, where students receive industry recognized credentials. And the costs of those credentials, we don't want to forward on to the students. We traditionally took them out of grants. Those grants have shifted. So we're moving those costs. They're not significant, but they're important into the district budget. So how do we accommodate more students without borrowing more money? We have two projects in line right now two strategies. You may recall that we had a couple of foundations built on the building on the site that we were going to use to build storage sheds that the students would build as part of their program projects. Well, the North Foundation, we're going to expand that into a metal fabrication shop. It's right next to the welding shop. And we're using our capital stabilization account to fund that. It's projected around $735,000. We've gone to bid on the building. It should be erected sometime in May. And then the students will finish it off over the summer. We'll hire some students to work with their teachers. And that will add about 32 students over four years. The second strategy that we're utilizing is to leverage our strategic partnerships with different businesses that we work with. Several years ago, in 2018, Governor Baker signed special legislation that allows Minuteman to enter into long-term leases with mission-compatible partners. And on the East Campus, we had a MIT Lincoln Lab Daycare Center which was then occupied by an independent day school. It's about a 16,000-square-foot building. And we're talking with some potential partners to transition that and renovate that building into academic classes and a veterinary clinic for our Animal Science Center. I'll mention the space constraints in the new building are not in the vocational technical areas. We have enough square footage for 800 students. We do not have enough academic space. And that's a result of the MSBA formulas, which I'm sure you're familiar with as you've gone through this process with the MSBA yourselves, but it limits the academic space with certain formulas. So that's the real critical component. Our OPEB liability, projected as of this June, is about 26 million. Two years ago, it was 32 million. We only have about a half a million dollars in our OPEB trust fund. So the school committee formed a study group, and the study group gave some recommendations to the school committee. This was one of the recommendations, was how to fund the contributions over the next six years. And you'll see in FY 25, those contributions take another good bump. And that's because we're retiring the ESCO lease, which was a 15-year tax exempt municipal lease. And we did have some stranded assets in there. Another foscuitism that I like to use. So, and we're also going to be for every new hire, we're going to be setting aside and budgeting $10,000 for each new hire to go into the OPEB trust fund. So this is, I'm coming to the end of the budget presentation to the FINCOM. This is where we're at. And I'm happy to answer any questions or review any slides. We're trying to get. Al Tosti. Yes. Hi, Al. Two questions. And I don't know if you know this or not, but two of the big senders of students to Minuteman over the years was, of course, Belmont that was a member in Watertown, which was not, but sent to all of its students. This is just curiosity. Do you know what they're doing with their students now? I don't know specifically, but I know generally that Belmont really has no options. Other than Minuteman. Watertown, we've had over 20 applicants in the, for the freshman class and none of them are going to get in. We reached out to Watertown over the years, as you know, and without much response, you know, they're in the process of building a new school. And I think they're going to try to add some vocational programs into the new Watertown high school, but it's really, it's a, it's, it's more than a shame. It's tragic that these kids from all of the towns that left have no place to go. And you said it would happen. I said it would happen. And now it's happened. Okay. And just a second question. Actually a concern. And I hardly ever have a concern when positions are eliminated, but you have a position of HR director, which is being eliminated. So, back in the early 2000s, Arlington school system in a budget crunch, eliminated its HR director. And within two years, if I could use the expression stepped in it, and it cost a lot of money. Is that a dangerous thing to do to eliminate the professional HR position? In this case, we've added a lot of money. And then we've added a little bit of the, you know, the elimination of the duties or the requirements that we have in terms of our collective bargain agreement and, you know, just managing our workforce. So the assistant superintendent Amy. Peralta has taken over the HR functionality. And we've reorganized different. Nikki, we've added an assistant business manager. We've added a accounts payable clerk. And next year we're gonna add another HR support specialist. So we've got all of our bases covered. People are very well trained. We actually I think have improved our HR functionality and service approach to our staff. And it's been so far working very well. We've been through the whole year with this reorganization. As the HR director position was eliminated back in April of last year. Okay, thank you. Thanks. Any other questions for Dr. Buchwell? I have one, Charlie. I'll go right ahead, Sean. Thanks, Charlie. And thanks for the presentation. I guess my question is sort of how do we measure success? Just interested in like how many, you know, graduation rates for four years, sort of, you know, we're a vocational school. So we're sending people to college, to apprenticeships and sort of how much success do we have in placing graduates and again, like academic or sort of workforce through places? Yes, thanks for the question. I appreciate it. Some of that information is in the budget book. Some will be in the town report. But generally speaking over the last 10 years or so, we've had about a 97 to 99% placement rate of our graduates. Between 60 and 65% are going on to post-secondary education and another 30 to 35% go directly into the workforce. And I think the other way we measure success, I love the question, is in terms of the number and quality of industry recognized credentials that students who are leaving here get. For instance, in environmental technology, the students get their wastewater treatment operators license. They get their freshwater operators license. And you know, if you're dealing with a municipal water system that those jobs are in high demand right now and they pay very, very well. You know, the students out of Allied Health, they don't get all their traditional, you know, CPR first aid, EKG technician and as well as their EMT. They're able to sit for the EMT licensure when they're 18 and most of them turn 18 as they're leaving. But so that's some of the stuff that comes to mind. Any more questions, Sean, Shane? Nope, that's it. Thanks. Okay, thank you. Sophie, you have your hand up. I do. This is sort of a follow-up that I understood in a previous meeting from someone else. What, does Minna Man take or spend money on students with special needs or IEPs? Yeah, Minna Man, about 47% of our students are on an IEP. Another eight to 12% depending on the year are on a 504. Minna Man has the highest percentage of students on IEPs than any other high school in the state. Our students do very well. We have an integrated model. Our MCAS scores and test results last year or the last year we had MCAS, 100% of our students passed MCAS English language arts in the first try. And when you consider close to half of them were on an IEP, that says something about the staff and the quality of what we're doing with students and who need supports. I will mention though that in the application process we're blind to their special ed status. We don't, people don't, we don't ask about their IEP status until they've been offered admission. Thank you. Questions, Sophie? Yes, it does. Thank you. Any other questions for Dr. Boquillin? Okay, thanks. Well, wait, wait, wait, I am. Dean, do you have a question? Well, I have a comment so I didn't want to make my comment until the questions were over. Oh, I think Charlie's got a few for me. So Charlie, you can ask your question first. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And McCoy has a question too. Who has a question? Dean? McCaya. Oh, McCoy. Sorry, thank you. Go first. Oh, mine was related to Shane's. It's a question I usually ask the HR director and the finance committee, the finance director here, but like what relationship do we have with graduates and municipal jobs, especially from the nine district member schools? Especially since there's such a shortage of tech jobs, is there a relationship there? Well, we get frequently get calls for students. We have a work co-op program so that students in their senior year, instead of coming to their vocational technical program, they would go to work. And many of them over the last, many of them that I'm aware of have gone and worked for municipalities. We had one student in environmental tech who went, I guess there's a wastewater treatment plan in Bilreca. She went and worked there for her co-op job, making $27 an hour. When she graduated, she ended up working full time for them and worked her way through, I think it was UMass Lowell and got a degree in environmental science, ended up coming back here and working as a technical assistant as well. So we get calls frequently from our communities and from community-based organizations within our communities that work with our students in a number of different ways, work with our programs in a number of different ways. One of the great examples with Arlington is Arlington Eats and the program we've been running for two years where that food rescue program brings raw food products to our culinary arts program. They prepare it and then it gets picked up again and distributed over 400 meals a week that we're still doing to food insecure families in our area. Does that help? Okay, yeah. Yes, that helps. So is it usually on individuals to make that connection or is there a staff member to coach? To be a liaison? We have a co-op director, a work co-op director and then our CTE director. We also have some staff that are paid to coordinate outside projects where our students go off site. Right now we have two projects with Habitat, one with a historical society. So yes, we're very active in terms of reaching out. Community service is sort of a core value of ours. John Ellis, you have your hand. I'm sorry, are you, is that into your question, Micaiah? Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I was asking mostly about jobs after college versus community service-based projects, but that answers my question, it's fine. Thank you. John Ellis, do you still have a forestry program? We never really had a forestry program. We had a construction, a landscape construction program. We have Arlington, the question from Micaiah raised my interest because this is older, but I mean, our tree warden went to Minuteman and did some sort of forestry program there probably about 25 years ago. And there's definitely a shortage of tree wardens and certified arborists in the state. Absolutely. So there's no, but there's no forestry program or horticulture program. Yes, there's a horticulture and landscaping program. Okay. Yep. Reef? Yeah, hi, Ed. Hi, Arif. Good to see you. Greetings from India. So thanks again for all the 15 years of service and I'm sure you've had many a sleepless night. My question here is about generic one, but I wanted to approach it away from the slides, as opposed, what keeps you up at night? I know there are only a few nights left for you, but what is it that really bothers you? I mean, yes, there's an increase in budgets and all the rest, but ultimately, what would you like to bring out that hasn't been brought out from those slides? Yeah. Well, besides Charlie's questions, I would say, you know, really right now, and I think a lot of folks in education feel this way, I hope they do. I'm really concerned about the emotional wellbeing of our staff and our kids and what they've all been dealing with with two years. I, we talk about it a lot here and we have different programs, but I think it's so systemic, the pain and the tragedy and the stress that people have been under. I really think that's gonna have an impact on learning. We've seen it in a number of different ways in terms of students who require hospitalization, that those numbers are up. So that really concerns me. I think the other thing that concerns me is the kids in our own district that we don't have room for. There's nothing I can do about that. Well, there is and I'm doing all I can, but I try not to dwell on the past and what we could have done should have done all that kind of stuff, but kids not being served and kids being in stressful situations and having to deal with it for years to come. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. Dean, you wanted to make a comment? I did, yeah. So I wrote some notes. So I do want to echo Charlie's words of praise for Dr. McCullin. I might be a little more detailed. I have to be honest, Dr. McCullin, I was shocked like 15 years. Wow, that's a, I don't know. And I gotta be honest, there are very few town officials I think I've ever worked with that I miss. I'll miss when they leave, but like the two I'm gonna miss the most have left in two years in a row, meaning Dr. Bode last year and you this year. And I just like for the larger membership, I think it's important to understand how consequential these last 15 years were, right? So like when Dr. B started, I wrote it down, right? We had a dying and decaying building at Minuteman. We had outdated programs. We had a downright hostile management of the school who just didn't care about us. I mean, they showed up to Tom Meading and they were like, hey, we already have the, they shipped to finance committee and started by saying, well, we have the vote. So whatever you tell us, it doesn't matter. I remember, you know, they had no budgetary controls and I remember at the time Paul Olson was like, you know what, we're so fed up. Why don't we just withdraw and sue them and we'll figure it out from there, right? I mean, it was really ugly and it's been a, it has been like a very important 15 years, right? We went from thinking about winding the school down to fighting these policy and political battles. We, Dr. B deleted poor programs that were outdated and should have gone away. He added new ones. He helped steer the political process for a new regional agreement. He helped work through the building committee vote. And then when Belmont decided to back out, we had to do the district referendum and then we had to build the building. It's been a big, big accomplishment. And you know, the one thing I will always remember Dr. B, I'll be my sort of lasting images. What I always tell people about, I feel like my relationship with you and I want to share with the committee is when Belmont had withdrawn and we had to go to the district vote, we were trying to rally people to our side and withdraw from the agreement. Now we had to go to the district by vote. We were having a meeting at Belmont and I remember saying to Dr. McQuillan, I said, you know, if Belmont withdraws, we're gonna kick all their kids out of the school, right? And he said, Dean, my job is to provide high quality vocational education for every child that asks for it and that I can fit in the building. And I said, right. And then we're gonna kick the kids from Belmont out. And he said, and he said, no. And he repeated what he told me. And he said, your job on the political side is to say who can't commit. My job is always going to be to look out for the children who need and want this education. If you wanna throw them out, Dean, that's up to you and the people in Arlington. And I always remember that. It was just, it was your singular focus that these children who needed this school and this form of education mattered. And they mattered the day they show up, they matter the day they leave. And I will always remember you as probably the greatest champion I've ever known for vocational education and children who deserved what they're getting at Minuteman today. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know if Dan Dunn was here, he would agree, Dan would be, he fought like hell. I mean, it was, it's, people owe you a debt of gratitude for this. It's huge. So thank you. Thank you, Dean. So I still have my questions, Dr. Okay. And I'd like to bring you back to your slide too. Sure. You've got two, two changes there that I, I'm hoping somebody can just dig down a little bit and explain them for us. One is the assessment to members has gone up by 15%. That comes out to about 3.4 million. Did that all come from the drop in non-member towns or is there? No. What's the other cause of that? I can, the other cause of it is the formula set by the department in terms of your minimal minimum local contribution. And also, let me just see where it is here. Well, I have, I have Arlington's assessment components here, but Nikki can help me if I get this wrong. But some of most of it is from the drop in out of district revenue. The other is from a drop in or an increase in your required local minimum contribution. So in Arlington's case, the minimum required local contribution, which is set by the department of ed went up 26% on its own. I can show you that slide right here. I don't know if you can see that. Can you see that? So these are the components of the assessment. So the state is requiring that you pay more anyway. And I think, I don't know, I can't see Nikki, but I don't know if any other town had that significant an increase in local required contribution. So you got to remember those formulas are set by the state. There's no rolling average in there. They're looking at the actual enrollment from chapter 78 point of view from the previous October one. So these are included. You're saying that's a, that's a function of our increased enrollment. It's a function of your increased enrollment, your overall wealth factor, and other factors that go into that chapter 78 calculation. So I think you had that, that would make, I think the, you had about a 1.7 or $2 million drop in revenue. Revenue from out of district. So that would get us pretty close to the 3.6 million, I think. Yup. 3 million. And then on the top of that slide, you have this 4.96% increase over fiscal 22, including you had an over a million dollar drop in the interest, right? From our bond, yeah, our bond requirements. Yeah. So what are the components of that change? Of the MSBA project that's not? What, well, let me rephrase it. The increase in students was about 20%, right? From this year versus last year? For Arlington. Well, no, for the whole, for the whole district. A little less than that, I think, yes. Our applications were up 24%, but enrollment I think was up about 18. So, but your costs went up 5% in the aggregate? Yes. And so that's the entire variable component. Is that one way of looking at it? It's the most significant variable component. This slide that I'm showing you now is a comparison of your assessment components from last year to this year. Let me just put this up again. So last year, well, you can see. Yeah. Enrollment in Arlington. Yeah. Is that helpful? Yes, very much. Okay, so I guess I can conclude that we had an increase in student population of something approaching 20%, but our total operating costs is only up 5%. Yes. And the change in assessment is principally due to dropping them in the tuition from out of district schools and a 30% increase in the state mandated expenditure. Is that correct? Generally speaking, that's pretty accurate, yes. Yeah, okay. Thank you very much. That's what I wanted to understand. Any other questions for Dr. Buquelen? Al, Tasi. One issue that I was just curious about is energy costs. You've been in your new building now for a couple of years. And I remember you were expecting or hoping that moving from a building built for about 1,200 students to a building built for about 628 students that's new with all the new technology that you would have a significant savings in energy costs, heating, air conditioning, lighting, et cetera. Has that met your expectations? No, not at all. And we just had, so I think it was in November, we had our 250 kilowatt photovoltaic system came online. So we're hoping, and I'll remind you, as you know, this is the first year, the 2021-22 school year is the first year we've been in the school fully populated because we had to leave in March because of COVID, we weren't here last year full building. And we were following the recommendations and running our HVAC system at a much higher exchange rate than we would normally do. We didn't have the bodies creating BTUs in the building. So the design, we never were really able to get into a design mode. So this is our first year. We're seeing no dramatic increases from last year, but those reductions that I had hoped for and expected I haven't seen. And frankly, I don't think we'll understand the building for another year to go through a full heating and cooling cycle with a normal population in the building. But the photovoltaic system has been projected to save us between 30 and 40,000 a year on electricity costs. Plus it's solidified or guaranteed our $2 million reimbursement from the state which we had always planned on. It wasn't in due to a million, but we'd planned on it. Thank you. Dr. Boccoli, I have another question. Last, I think it was last year, you invested some money in the fields. I think it was a protein. And you were projecting that leasing the use of the field to outside parties was gonna pay for those capital expenses. Has that happened? Well, because of COVID, it hasn't, but we're definitely on track to meet those objectives. We are now starting to rent the outside facilities, three lighted synthetic fields. We're getting calls every day. We increased our rates significantly. And it hasn't stopped the flow of interest at all. Rich Eichenan has got a closer finger on the pulse of that than I do, but we're very pleased with the amount of interest in the fields. We haven't rented the interior spaces out yet just because of COVID and masks. And we've got a lot of kids in the building on a lot of activities at night. Our Minivan Technical Institute is doing very well. We're gonna have summer school again for the first time in a couple of years, sort of a normal summer school in camps. So, you know, I stayed an extra year to be in the new building for a year. And then COVID hit and I couldn't leave. So, I don't know. I'll call you in a year, Charlie. I'll ask you how it's going. Hey, thank you very much. Any other questions for Dr. Boquillin? Not a question, but I'd just like to echo Dean's sentiments that it's been a breath of fresh air to have you on board these last 15 years. It's made a huge difference to discussing the Miniman budget at town meeting. And it was a great pleasure to be working with you the first couple of years I was on finance committee. Thanks, Annie. No, I really appreciate it. I look forward to being at town meeting in person. Are you gonna have town meeting in person or don't you know yet? Don't know. I don't think so. No? Well, that's too bad. I could sit in the back with those guys who make noise. We'll keep you up to date. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Okay. So, Arif, do you wanna make a motion? Yes. So, I would like, if you look on page six of the presentation, there's the Arlington preliminary assessment. So, I believe, Mr. Chairman, we're making a motion for the total assessment for Arlington, which would be 7,947,939. Is there a second? Al Tassi? Second. And the court's seconded. So, any further discussion on the Minuteman preliminary budget, and let me just ask you, Dr. McQuillan, the word preliminary there is because we don't have the final numbers from the state. Correct. Yeah, okay. It cannot go up. It can only go down that assessment that you vote. Okay. So, any further discussion on the Minuteman budget? Well, Michael Ruderman, did you wanna say anything? Not beyond the fact that, you know, I too am very proud of the job that Dr. B has done. I've been connected with Minuteman first as a parent and then a volunteer for the last 10 years. And it has been a pleasure to work with someone with his vision. And that vision now expands to trying to deal with the success of Minuteman in the applications and providing more spaces for more kids who want to attend and increasing the, you know, daily attendance figure from somewhere in the 600s up to 800, all within the budget that we've presented to you tonight. It's a very gratifying experience and I wanna thank him for that. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Okay. Hearing seeing no other requests for comment, we'll move to a vote on the Minuteman budget as presented by a reef and seconded by Al Tosti and Yenny Lecourt. Grant Gibbian. Bane Blondell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Makaya Healy. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Ari Padaria. Yes. Sophie Michalazzo. Yes. Jonathan Wallach. He's not here. Darrell Harmer. Yes. Yenny Lecourt. Yes. Colin Jones. Yes. George Costa. Yes. Bill Keller. He's not here. Al Tosti. Yes. Juan de Nacimento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yes. Dean Karman. Yes. And David McKenna. Yes. Thank you. The Minuteman budget is supported unanimously. Dr. McQuillen and team, thank you very much. Appreciate your time this evening. So the next question are, Christine, are any of the public works or facilities budgets available for tonight? We can do facilities tonight. Okay. Take it away, please. If somebody could put up the facilities budget that is on page 80, that would be helpful. Perhaps. Thank you. For people who don't are new, the facilities department is a relatively new department. It was formed roughly seven or so years ago. And its role is obviously to handle the maintenance requirements and take care of the town's buildings, most of which are the schools. It has slowly acquired more properties and its portfolios over time. And I think it continues to do so and will do so. Although it's been a new department, it has already gone through, I think, four different directors. And Jim Feeney, who is temporary acting the facilities director, explained that the market for a person with the skills and experience is pretty hot. And it's hard to get people to join a municipality when there are universities and other businesses who are hungry for people who could fill this position. Having said that, we are encouraged to hear that the expectation is that they will be bringing on a new director perhaps as early as next month. So hopefully we will have a new director very soon and hopefully that director will have a bit of a tenure with us, unlike prior directors. Looking at the salaries page, you can see that there is very little change in the budget. The salaries expense line has actually gone down a bit and that's because we've lost director of facilities and a long time administrative assistant. So that explains why salaries have gone down very slightly, but gone down on the less this year. I will also say that although we see the building for custodians, the facilities department supported by a good many other maintenance and trades people that are in the schools. So it's not just the four custodians taking care of all of the town buildings. So I just want to let you know that. Looking at the facility expenses, I think we've heard already a couple of times that the reason that the 5202 professional maintenance and the 5269 repair maintenance lines had increased because the facilities department is being tasked with taking on more of the maintenance of the libraries, the police and the fire stations. So money has been moved from those budgets and the budgets were left off. And that's, that is really the big increase in the facilities department expense line item. I don't think we really have anything more to add to what was presented in the budget. I will say that Mount Gilboa, people who are interested is no longer being rented out and the town is currently undergoing conducting a study as to figure out what the best use of Mount Gilboa it will be. And until that's completed, if there is no intention to run that space out. Just also informationally, the line item 5810 green repairs that there has been for several years now and a amount budgeted $20,000, that money is to be used when we can to as matching to acquire some grant money. That $20,000, any portion of that is used to up leverage some grant. And professional services, the 5827 line is there in case there are any, that something breaks, something needs to be fixed and we need some money to pay for architectural or engineering reports or studies or estimates. So that money is used on an as needed basis. And the offset you see is from the schools and that represents the work that the display department does on behalf of all the school buildings. John, I don't know if you have anything else I wanna add to the budget information. No, I mean, I thought it was interesting that the amount of technology needs that a facilities department requires and that they might need additional staffing in the future because the kinds of buildings that are being built are very sophisticated computers for everything from entry to intercoms to lighting systems. And they all have very complex systems and manuals and somebody who was hired traditionally in a facility's job to do wiring or electrical repair is a different kind of skill set than somebody who needs to necessarily, we program the card entry system when everybody in the school is locked out and school has to get open. So I think that this department, just like the DPW has recently picked up a position that's a technology-based person, this department may be looking at that kind of staffing requirement too. Andy, you have your hand up. Yeah, I'm just wondering whether or not the responsibilities that John Ellis just mentioned would fall under facilities or would fall under the IT department? Do we know? In most organizations I've worked in, those would be IT issues once the systems were in place. You could be right, Andy, at this point, it's just a dream to get somebody whether in the facilities department itself or IT or a combination be able to handle this. I think the hope, I know I have the hope that when we finally get the permanent facilities director that there'll be some time and space for that person to give all of this in thought and try to figure out what the department so what the pound needs and where that person or people would be best situated. Thank you. It strikes me, Andy, that maybe it's a little bit like the modern car repair. 15 years ago it was all wrench, maybe 20 years ago it was all wrench and hammer or whatever and now it's electrical subsystems that have to be maintained. So it's not necessarily the IT department but more IT people who are specialists in highly automated equipment, facilities equipment. Well, the good thing is they'll all be in the same building. Yeah, Brian Beck. Yeah, a quick question. On the energy usage, do you have electricity and natural gas? Have they rethought that at all as you look this year the rates are up considerably to date and I only assume they're going to get more expensive? Is that something that since it's such a big number that maybe it should be higher for all I know but it looks like they're just copying last year's numbers. Well, they seem to be in line with actuals and maybe a little bit more. If you look at the natural gas actuals, 41,000 for 20 and 21, being budgeted now at 50,000, you may be right that that may prove not to be sufficient but I think it's a reasonable estimate. That's fine, I just want, yeah, again, I'm trying to be reasonable too and make sure they have what they need. Shane. Thanks, Charlie, and thanks, Christine. So we talked at the outset about it, we have the brand new wing of our high school and hopefully it lasts a very long time but obviously lots of technology and maintenance that's required and if the facilities department seems really important to keep our brand new buildings well maintained. So I know you said it's a hot market so is there a plan in place to hire? Are they posting? Are they thinking of like the job description, the pay? I mean, how does Arlington compete, I guess? So what's, is there some sort of plan in place? So I expect that Jim Feeney is, yeah, I think this is a, what, the second, at least second time he's the acting facilities director. So just curious if there's a vision. Well, as I said, that they're, they have been interviewing and they are, they think they can bring someone on board maybe as soon as next month. But I think you asked a good question. Are, is the job requirements, it's given the job requirements, is the salary sufficient? I don't know if the reason people left was purely salary-based but that's, I would think that having, having had so many directors come through and in such a quick span of time that the town manager would be thinking about why and if there is something that can be done to be able to keep people. But again, I don't know why people left. All right, thank you. Thank you, Shane. Alan Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For a long time, there've been concerns that town buildings and school buildings have suffered from deferred or lack of proactive maintenance. And I know there was talk when the facilities department was created to have, you know, use good automated tools to project failures and things that could be done based on statistics and experience. And I'm wondering, do you see that sort of effort going on yet in the facilities department to really analyze and forecast, you know, when is this gonna break and what can we do to give it a little more life and whatever, in other words, is it, do you think it's sufficiently proactive and not just reactive? I think it is clearly the desire to be proactive. I know that when the facilities department began, there was a desire, and actually, I think we did, use a school dude because a rather well-established program. And then we had a new director who didn't, I don't, my understanding was that another director, the new director wasn't enamored with that and switched to something else. And then there was this, that person left and then there was this realization, no, we really should have stuck with that. So there's, again, I think because of the turnover, it's been hard to find something and stick with it. But I do know from the creation of this department, which I was involved in and meeting with all of the subsequent directors and the temporary acting director that this is why this department exists, is to be proactive, to not just respond to the loudest voice, the squeaky wheel, but to be more thoughtful of what needs attention when, if that can wait, while we do something else, more important, more urgent figure, we'll do that. But we'll get you on, we'll get you on the list. Don't worry, we'll get you on the list. I know that that was, that's the point of having this department. Okay, yeah, so I guess, I remember that from the department was created, but it sounds like due to turnover or whatever that's still in the field. And I was asking that because I don't, I didn't see anything in the budget and I don't think in the capital budget for purchase of software programs or anything. So they got a $10,000 grant from the insurance, some insurance agency that works for law municipalities. And that $10,000 to spend on a software program that does asset management. And the biggest portion of that work is tagging and barcoding and then labeling. And so that they know what pieces of machinery need to be maintained when. And so that's a new program. I forget what it's called. And with that grant, they got, they had enough funding to do like a couple of schools or something like that. And in future budgets, there'll be a $5,000 annual fee for this software that they're using that does that kind of what they call asset management tool. So that tool does exist and it's slowly being implemented. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Alan. Any other questions on facilities? So I had a couple of thoughts and I think they've been somewhat addressed. One was the software that was just discussed and also the, as Shane brought up earlier, the increase energy costs. I'm sorry, that was Brian brought up these changes in energy costs. But my third question was somewhat subjective, but it seems to me that we have a new very expensive and complex high school coming online. Do we have any idea of what the maintenance costs are gonna be in that building? Are they gonna be greater than the old high school or less than the old high school? And how are we prepared for it? I don't know the answer for that. I can inquire. I mean, I suspect that the Arlington high school building committee has had a subcommittee or a group working on sort of the maintenance and operating costs of the building. And am I correct in assuming and saying that the facilities budget includes the town buildings and the school buildings, right? Most of them, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think that may not be a big issue in fiscal 23, but as this building comes online, I think it is gonna be a big issue. Well, Jim Cini did mention that, and John Ellis alluded to this just a few minutes ago, that the newer the building, the more complex the building, the greater the skill needed to take care of the building. There's a new talent, different talents need to be utilized and things are more complex. So, I wouldn't be surprised that even though it's a new building, the day-to-day maintenance cost may actually be more expensive. You know, and another follow on that if the building committee isn't thinking about this, they should be and Jim is thinking about it, but doesn't have a solution to it. And that's the issue of warranties. So, the school will have I think a one-year warranty from the general contractor, but then there could be dozens or maybe hundreds of individual warranties for subsystems within the school from sinks to door panels to IV, AV tools, whatever. And when something breaks digging down and figuring out whose warranty covers it, and where is the manual that explains the warranty, it's something he's had to do and there's a lot of work. And there are tools that do warranty management, but the town isn't using that. So, when the school is done and delivered, we get a year warranty, but then there's a lot of other things that could potentially break within the lifetime of warranties that those different subsystems provide that we may not have any way of figuring out what those are when those things, and if those things break. So, I think it would be a good idea if you touch base with the, I mean, maybe Mike Mason could direct you in the right direction on the school, the Austin High School Building Committee for whosoever concerned about operations and maintenance costs. And follow up on the various ideas that have been discussed tonight on the software management system, and then warranties and then scheduling asset, whether even if they're out of warranty, scheduling maintenance of the assets based on their use and longevity. Because I can tell you, having been on the Capital Planning Committee for many, many years, we were always frustrated because we were faced with capital expenditures that had to be made because maintenance wasn't appropriately addressed along the way. So I'm not gonna suggest that we post on the budget over that because I don't think it's gonna impact this year's budget, but it would be a good idea to bring some focus on that, somebody, I don't know if it's Jim Feeney or some other person, but I think it would be appropriate. So, and any other questions for Christine and John on the facilities budget? Any Atari, can you see any questions? Okay. Nope. All right, so Christine or John, do you wanna make a motion? I move that we approve the facilities department budget in the amount of $868,434. Okay, so is there a second? Second. Yeah, seconded by Annie LaCorte. So the budget facilities budget for $868,434 has been moved and seconded. Is there any further question or comments by anybody on the committee? All right, so seeing none, we'll take a vote on the facilities budget. Grant Gibbian is not here. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Kaya Healy. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Arif Padaria. Yes. Sophie Migliazzo. Yes. Jonathan, Jonathan's on here, I'm here. Darrell Harmer. Yes. Annie LaCorte. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. George Kosher. Yes. Phil Keller. He's not here. Altasi. Yes. Juan de Nascimento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yeah. Ian Corman. Yes. David McKenna. Yes. Okay, thank you. That's unanimous vote in favor of the facilities budget as presented for 860,834 dollars. Charlie. Yes. Before we leave the facilities department budget, I do have an answer to a question regarding the warrant article on the net zero warrant article. Do you want me to let you tell you what Jim Feeney's view of it is? Can we, Tara, are you there? Who's got the, who's driving the screen? Me. Can you flip up the warrant article? Yes. Please. One sec. Sorry. Can you see this? I, that's a little better that way, I think. Yeah. Do you remember what article that was? I have the new numbering. Okay. So one sec here. True net zero opt-in for a code for cities and towns. Is that right? I think so. Yes. Is it the resolution or is there something, was it a resolution or was it something else? Because there's another. It was a bylaw proposal. One sec. Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Here we go. This one? Right. Yeah, that's the one. The short answer is Jim Feeney doesn't know what impact that will have because nobody has seen the details, the actual language of the warrant article. He pulled us that generally speaking, the facility department of town as a whole is committed to energy efficiencies in eliminating greenhouse gases. However, as you put it, decarbonization means the town will have to rely on greater electrification, which means a lot of the, which will quarrel of investment in our building, which is going to take money and we don't know if we will have that money. And also might throw a monkey wrench into our current capital plan because we've already have put in certain projects that are, which may be just unable to do if we would require electrification of buildings or whatnot. So in summary, although the concept is something the town supports, it may become an expensive and difficult endeavor for the town, but everyone is, at least Jim Feeney seems to be reserving final judgment when there's actual language to look at in the bylaw. Thank you, Christy. So we certainly have to have a hearing on that article. Okay, let me have that. So we have, yes, okay, hearing needed. Okay, great. Thanks for that, Christine. Andy, you have your hand up. Well, I was just going to ask, but I could save it for the hearing. I know the high school is an all-electric building. Is the DPW project also an all-electric project? I mean, I know our new buildings are all going to be all-electric. I can't answer. I don't know. Can't recall. We'll find out. I wouldn't. But I think it would be, they have a goal of being leads compliant. Yeah, so that would be all-electric. Well, again, I don't know exactly as to the infrastructure is being taken out and replaced. Right. So, yeah, I don't think that's a question we could also bring up to the Capital Planning Committee. Yep. Okay. Thank you, Christine. So, are there any other budgets this evening? So, if we had time, Al has a couple of articles, I believe, for us to look at. Yeah, we actually have the IT budget. Yeah, the IT budget and other financial follow-up issues. Al Tassi. I'm sorry. We did the IT budget already. No, you had some follow-up. Follow-up. Yes. Remember, I emailed them to you. Could you bring them up to the committee in case they haven't seen the email? I thought you would forward it. Jared, did you forward my email? Forward it. Let me grab it. Can you also see my? Well, maybe I'm on a second. Yes. Okay. So, under moving costs, and it was just sent today at 507. So, we have a little bit of information here. Can everyone see this? Kind of? It's a little small for me, to be honest. Better? That's a little better, yeah. Okay. And then we also have costs below this. So, the answer to one question was that the Water and Sewer Billing is the last program to move. And IT is now over on 23 Maple Street and the Town Hall, okay. And the cost is down below? Yes. So, there is some more information about, let's see. It's gonna be going to the high school project, right? Yes, and it looks like some people were moved out of the high school. IT was formerly in the high school. So, I guess the whole move is getting covered by the high school project. Is that basically it now? Yes. Looks like the, getting ready to be moved over DPW when it's ready. And yeah, okay. And then I think there's a little bit more below that. Yeah, okay. So, in any event, that means it's not gonna come out as an operating budget item in facilities or IT or any other places because it's covered by the building program. Good, thank you. So, Tara, do we have, you have your marked up? So, I have put the notes that we had in this document here with the new numbering system. So, most of them stayed, a lot of them stayed the same. And then the ones that had a new number are highlighted in the yellow with the new number and then the temporary number. And I counted and we have all the same amount of articles. So, no new articles, nothing. And I didn't see any names changing in here. So, I have here what needs a hearing or recommendation and like any kind of notes that we took on it. And we can go back to that original document as well. But it's all, I believe, captured here. Great. So, let's just scan down this list. Except for this, except for I seem to mess up. Okay, I'll come back to this, but. Yeah, well, that we don't need hearings on. Okay, anyway, yeah. So, yeah, you're going to follow up on the. Police advisory commission, right? Yes, I have a question and chief priority. That I sent last night and I'll send the similar question to the co-chairs of the. The citizen advisory, whatever it's called. Okay. The civilian police advisory commission. Okay. Would you like me to sort here by what I just got? We'll just go down down the list. I think that's fine. Okay, the net zero we just discussed. And we have to have a hearing. So that's fine. Yeah. And I'll toss the suggested a meeting on the. I love the message partnerships. And then going down to the noise abatement and noise regulations, leaf blowers. Christine, do you have any further thoughts on that? Charlie, we're scheduled to meet with the DPW director tomorrow and get an answer then. OK, so so so Monday we can. We will know whether we should have a hearing or not. OK. OK, so this this next article will be taken up on the ending. Annie, when are we going to take that up? Is we need to have a special hearing? Well, we have director Bonjono coming to our meeting on March 14th. OK, so unless that's too late, I think we can ask her that question at that point as to whether or not it has financial implications. And then I guess we would have to decide whether or not we needed to hold the hearing with the proponents. If Christine thinks it's going to cost money, I could send her an email in advance and that would be an idea because the 14th is sort of late if you just take her pulse on that. And then we can decide about hearing. You want me to go back to the original language of this one? No, no, no, I'm just scanning down the list. OK, so the next one is the street trees. Is one we didn't have a resolution on. Sophie, have you any feedback on that? I have sent an email out and I'm waiting for a response. Who did you send it to? Jenny, I'm planning a planning and community development. OK, so we should know maybe by Monday. What? Yeah, certainly. OK, keep scanning on down. We're getting to the. Pig budget. OK, these are all items is financial items that we're going to discuss directly. The appropriation for blue bikes, that's unknown. OK, so Jonathan's going to figure out what we're going to do there. All right. Oh, and really quick. I've heard back from everyone now, only one person, only one committee is requesting an increase. Eleven of them are not and one is still probably not going to, but just researching it. But I just wanted to point out on this one that it seems like there's a new one added called the design standards. And so would we want a hearing on this because it was not included last year. It's a new. Yes, mission. OK, so we want one. We're asking for $50,000. Yeah. OK, yeah, it needs a hearing. OK. Sorry, where were we? Harry, Barbara, Harry, you're going to follow up on that. Yeah, I think it's the same amount. We don't need a hearing in Al Tossi. Yes. Is this is this war an article? The. Now, this is the disability article, right? Yeah. What isn't there? Wasn't there always a war an article to adjust the retirees cost of living expense? Now, the cost of living is decided by the retirement board. This is an article to allow people whose pensions fall below 50 percent of the current salary for that position to be brought back up to the 50 percent. And I'm ready to make a recommendation on that and OPEB if if you would like. So that's that's this is the war an article. And you're also referring to the OPEB war an article, right? Right. OK, that's fine. Let's do it since we're here. Tara, could you bring up the article in motions? Yes, let's see. It's over here. So let me see if I can. Yeah, here we go. Here we go. Nope. Sorry. Sorry, one sec. Maybe I put it in here. I have it up somewhere in my slew of tabs. So just a second here. One sec. You're looking for the text on the war an article or. OK, and the motions. I drafted the motion. OK, well, I know one place it is. So so we'll just look for it here when I need like just two minutes to look for this. We're how where'd you send it as an email today? I sends it to Tara, probably about five o'clock. Here we go. Oh, OK, that's right. Yeah, I got it. And it's not loading. Nice. Good work. OK, the first one is article. Oh, this is article 67 in the new draft of the warrant. Just to bring everybody up to date, including the new people, probably about 20 years ago, maybe 25 years ago, the finance committee and the retirement board came to an agreement on how to fund the OPEC, which is the other post employment benefit trust fund. And at that time, we had the non-contributory, which we talked about earlier in the retirement system, was about was five hundred thousand dollars. Now, that non-contributory we knew was going to be declining over a period of time. So we agreed that the difference between five hundred thousand and the actual contribution to the non-contributory retirement, that difference would be taken and put into the OPEC fund. And so, you know, the first few years, it might have been an appropriation of four hundred and fifty thousand, so we take fifty thousand. And then maybe it was the two years, it was three hundred and fifty thousand. So we put one hundred and fifty thousand in OPEC. So this A represents that agreement. Now, I could probably rework this language, but I could do it. So this is since the base of five hundred thousand, since the appropriation for the non-contributory is zero, that will put the whole five hundred thousand into the OPEC fund. B is an appropriation of one hundred and fifty five thousand. And so, years ago, the Board of Selection in 2006 voted to reduce the town's share of retiree indemnity plans from 90 percent to 85 percent, which means the retirees would go from 10 percent to 15 percent. That saved the town one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars approximately. And the select ones said they would do that only if that whole hundred and fifty five goes into the OPEC fund. So every year since then, we've been appropriating one hundred and fifty five into the OPEC fund. C is back in 2014, I think it was maybe two thousand and thirteen. The town entered put all its employees under the GIC, the Group Insurance Commission of the state. Because before that, we were self insured, which means we didn't have insurance. And so we had a large trust fund of three approximately three million dollars. And since we went into the GIC, we didn't need a trust fund because that was an insurance plan. And so rather than just have three million dollars sitting around doing nothing, we agreed over a period of time to transfer three hundred thousand each year from the trust fund into the OPEC fund. So these are the three amounts then. So right now we're up to nine hundred and fifty five thousand dollars going into the OPEC fund. And I think when we went through the retirement, I think we're funding about 10 percent of the liability that we're I think we're funding about 10 percent of the liability. Now, liability is about two twenty five. We have about twenty five million in the OPEC fund. So this, along with the investment earnings of the current OPEC fund, you know, we'll keep increasing that. So if there's any if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Questions for Al. So, Al, do you know what the amount of money left in the health insurance trust fund is? Well, I ask that there's still. A million and a half to two million dollars or something like that. So there's still a substantial amount left in the trust fund. OK, why wouldn't we just transfer it all into. Into the OPEC. I think the the manager made the point at the time that if we go back into a self-insured plan, then we don't want to drain it all of it too fast in case we want to set up a self-insurance plan and get out of the GIC. So the plan was to do three hundred a year. The what the other concern at the time was that there might be some residual claims from, you know, people who were under treatment or whatever prior to us joining the GIC that still had to be covered from the trust fund. But I think that time has passed. I don't think there are any more cases like that when I wouldn't think so. So OK. And then just for the reason I ask, maybe you can just explain to the committee the two different unfunded liability views on OPEB because if we if we. Contribute more to the OPEB than the unfunded liability goes down. Right now, if you do contributions to OPEB based on an actuarial study, then you could use a lower interest rate to evaluate that actuarial liability. But to do an actuarial liability funded plan, I think it was something like 10 to 12 million dollars a year would have to go into the OPEB fund, which we obviously don't have. So this is not an actuarial funding plan. This is a funding plan made up of different sources of that we happen to have. Now, at some point, we might want to, you know, different towns have taken different looks at this. I think the town of Wellesley actually had a override to fully fund their OPEB liability. And, you know, other I think it was NADIC. They got the NADIC mall and there was so much money coming in that they used a portion of that to go into the OPEB fund. So, you know, different different towns approach it differently. We approached it. Let's get some money flowing in there. And it's almost, you know, two million a year now or sorry, a million a year close to it going into the fund. And, you know, we haven't taken anything away from any other budgets. Thank you, Al. So, Al, do you want to make a motion? Yes, I'd like to make a motion to fund the OPEB under the article that you see articles and sections that you see now for a total of nine hundred and fifty five thousand dollars. So it's been moved and seconded. Any other questions for Al on this article? Sixty seven. Yes, Wanda. I just had a question. Can you hear me? Yes. About the you mentioned it was 10 percent funded. And I wondered if if there was a goal or a plan or is 10 percent the goal or it's just what we've been able to accumulate over the years. Well, right now it's it's been what we've been able to accumulate over the years. And we've been lucky that, you know, the the economy has done very well over the last number of years. So that that's grown. So we've got about twenty two million in the OPEB fund now. I think the next big factor would be when the retirement system is fully funded. And if you remember from last week, that's going to be fully funded in two thousand and thirty three, which is only eleven years from now. I don't know if any of us will still be on the committee at that point. But and then all of a sudden, the retirement large retirement appropriation goes away. I can't remember the exact amount, but it's quite a amount of money. And we could shift that money into the OPEB and much more rapidly fund that system. OK, thank you. Thank you, Al. Annie, we yet have a legal requirement to fund OPEB. No, I can I can answer that. The answer is no. OK. The issue is that we're not required to. We are not legally required to pay for the health insurance of retirees. That's been a practice in it is. A council has advised us that it is. It's not in the I don't believe that in the labor contracts, that it's a condition of employment, but it's been in place for so long that it is a de facto condition of employment. And probably if we if it was litigated, we might not be successful. So therefore, and then there's always the possibility that the legislature will mandate it, in which case it makes sense for both of those reasons to to be and we are covering the health insurance of employees. So to not cover it, we would have to stop a practice and just doesn't make sense to to not be funding the fund. But we're not talking about their employment, their health insurance, whether employed or talking about post employment. Post employment, yes. And all of our employees are now in Medicare. I mean, historically, we probably have some we're carrying that we're not, but currently they all are correct. But I believe that's accounted for in the actuarial. Right. How many how many employees are on Medicare? You go on Medicare if you're eligible for Medicare. But if you didn't pay into Medicare and your spouse is not eligible for Medicare, then you're not eligible for Medicare. No, we put we've put our employees in the Medicare system. All of our current employees are paying into Medicare. Right. But a lot of the employees who before we did that did not pay into Medicare. Yeah, I I understand that. I just want to get the big picture out here. So we don't have a legal obligation, so we don't have a funding schedule that we got to meet. And but we think we're we're legally obligated by past practice to fund their health insurance. But we have put employees that's at some point, I think sometime in the 80s, we started putting all our employees into Medicare. So eventually we are down to our liability being the Medigap insurance. It's also that liability is on our balance sheets that go out to bond buyers and the credit rating agencies. Wanda, you have a question. No, I think I forgot to take my hand down. OK, thank you. All right, so it's been moved and seconded. Does anyone have any additional comments on this article? Sixty seven and the draft of the war. So we have a Charlie. Yes, David. Yes, I'll be upstanding on this this article for reasons that I am of the retire. I receive every time from the town of Alec and as well as health insurance. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? OK, let's move to a vote on article. I'll use the number sixty seven as presented by Al for nine hundred fifty five thousand dollars, the grand pivian out here. Shane Blundell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Mikaela Healy. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Arif Bedaria. Yes. Sophie Mengele, that's all. Yes. Shailene Crawford Procura is not here. Daryl Harmer. Yes. Any look court. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. George Kosar. Yes. Bill Keller. He's not here. Tosti. Yes. Wanda Nascimento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Yeah. Dean Carmen. Yes. And David McKenna. I will abstain. OK, so we have 15 in favor and one abstention and the vote is passed. Article sixty seven. OK, Al, you have another article. Yes. OK, this is actually an article. Sixty four in the new the new draft. As I think I mentioned before, when a town employee retires, they're getting a cost of living raise only on their first $15,000 of pension. So let's say their pension is 30,000 a year. They're getting a cost of living raise on their first 15. Meanwhile, the employee who now replaced them in that position is getting a cost of living raise on their whole 30,000. So gradually that employee will be getting a lesser and lesser percentage. Let's say they started at 75 percent. They're gradually over a period of like 20 or 30 years. They're going to their percentage of their old job is going to be going down. If what this article does and we've been told that we have to do, we have to pass it every year is allow the retirement board to bring if the employee falls below 50 percent of their salary of the salary that's getting now. This allows the retirement board to move them up back up to the 50 percent. So it basically sets a floor and people don't reach that floor usually for quite a while. And I think the retirement board has usually said the cost is someplace around $10,000, $15,000, if I remember, from from past years. Now, you'll see a date in the middle provided, however, that no one retires after May 1, 2010. This is to close a little loophole that was found by people who did this, not to have this as a floor, but to boost it up to 50 percent. So that's why that phrase is there with a specific date to close that loophole. So this has to be passed each year by town meeting. That's what it does is basically allows the retirement board to keep everybody at least at that 50 percent for questions for morale. Yes, Shane. Thanks, Al. Well, can you just like do a real world example for me? It's late, but can you just sort of just the sort of just a quick example of how this works and practice to compare like a retired police officer to like a current officer on the patrol men and women? Sometimes uniformed officers go under a bit of a different system. But let's just take a public works guy. He retires. He was making $50,000. He retired at full and he gets 80 percent, so he got $40,000. And then gradually over a period of time, the $50,000 salary is is going up at the whole 50,000 is going up at 3 percent. Let's say it's a 3 percent cost of living. Meanwhile, his 40,000 only 15,000 is got a cost of living. So therefore, his percentage of that job is going down each year. And if at some point it fell below the 50 percent of the current job because of he's only getting the cost of living on a third of his pension, then this allows him to at least keep it at 50 percent. Thank you. Other questions for Al on this article. OK, so is there a dollar figure here, Al? No, we used to put in a buck and we was driving the controller crazy because this dollar sat there year after year. So we finally decided to just make it zero. And then if for some reason, the retirement system needed some extra dollars to fund this, then we could transfer it into this article and the retirement system has never needed money. So we've just set it at zero. OK. So I'd like to make a motion of favorable action on article 67. Ignore the number that's up there. Second. So it's been moved and seconded for action on article 67. Sixty four. I'm sorry. It's sixty four. Yeah, sixty four. OK, yeah, it's been moved and seconded. Any further questions or discussion? So I'll be voting abstaining again on this article. OK, thank you. Any other comments, questions? All right, let's go to article sixty four for a vote. Great. Give me is not here. Shane Blondell. Yes. John Ellis. Yes. Makaya Healy. Yes. Brian Beck. Yes. Arepa Daria. Yes. See. Yes. Yes. OK, Jonathan Walts not here. Here. Shaylene's not here. Daryl Harmer. Yes. Annie LaCourte. Yes. Alan Jones. Yes. George Kosher. Yes. Bill Keller's not here. Al Tosti. Yes. One Nascimento. Yes. Christine Deschler. Dean Carmen. Yes. And David McKenna. Abstain. So it's 15 in favor, one abstention. The article is voted as presented by Al Tosti. OK. Any other articles that anyone might have? So I. Al, did you have this this last one here? Yeah, we're not prepared to take action on that. We need to discuss it. OK. Thank you. So we've done a second pass on the on the Warren articles. So, Tara, you're going to post that Excel spreadsheet that you have on the SharePoint side, right? Yes. So everyone can feel free to take a look at that. And if you have any concerns about any of the articles that you think we should have a hearing that we haven't yet so designated, please feel free to bring it up at the at the next meeting. So I don't think we have any more work to do this evening, unless. Jolly, yes. On the last Monday, you asked Sophie and I to look at the amendments to FY 22 budget. It was articles. Oh, yes. Yes, you're right. That's right. And I know exactly what you're talking about. OK. Go right ahead. OK, Tuesday morning, I had a conversation with Sandy Pula and he sent an email to you, Charlie, and I'll just highlight the email as to attend into this article. It's actually Dean kind of alluded to this explanation last Monday as well. It's purposes to transfer funds set aside in case of school growth school growth reserve fund to the reserve fund to the overlay reserve fund. This allows us to increase the overlay reserve fund by the full amount of one million ninety four zero fifty five, instead of having it referred to free cash at the end of the year. This seems to be the easiest way to make this transfer. And that was Sandy's response to our inquiry. And he sent that response also to our chairman, Charlie. Yes, thank you, David. I forgot about that. And so following that email, I had a conversation with Sandy about it. And the first thing is that he misspoke or he mistyped and he's talking about the override stabilization fund, not the overlay reserve fund. So it's actually the override stabilization fund. And the issue, the issue is that if we don't do something with that money this fiscal year, it's going to go to free cash and it can't be upon as revenue going into the next fiscal year for another year. So there are currently and furthermore, I don't think this article here solves the problem because if it's in the main, if it's in the town meeting, the annual time, the annual meeting is not going to get approved by the Department of Revenue and the Attorney General until sometime in July or August. And so that money will be in the reserve fund at the end of the year and will automatically go to free cash and this article won't have any impact. So there are two possibilities for how we can get that money in there that I discussed with Sandy today. Is is he's of the opinion and I don't. I don't know that it's possible, but he's of the opinion that. It doesn't that the. Well, I'm of the opinion that the finance committee can transfer that money into the Override Stabilization Fund by a simple vote at any time. And he's going to check with town council on that. Secondly, it may, if we can't, if we can't do that, then we'll put this article in the special town meeting that's being contemplated. And then when the special town meeting, which usually lasts one night in May, gets to the Attorney General's office, it gets approved much quicker and then the much more quickly, I should say, and the the amount of money that one million and ninety five thousand dollars, as I recall, will be able to go directly into the Stabilization Fund, the Override Stabilization Fund before the end of the year. And and then it can be taken out by our normal action on the Override Stabilization Fund in the annual town meeting. So that's the. That's the genesis of that article and the conversation with that David had with Sandy Puehler. Any questions? So we don't have to have a hearing on that. We if if the article shows up in the special town meeting warrant, we'll have to make a recommendation. Shane, thanks. I want to I'm not sure I understand this, but this is the the enrollment. This is the money we agreed to send into the. Yes, the school into the we're not using the money. OK, yes. If it's in the reserve fund at the end of the year, it goes into free cash and we can't use it for another year. OK, yeah, I guess that was my question. Why? What's the difference? What's the policy reason of having free free cash doesn't get certified until maybe September? And and so you can't you can't do anything with free cash for an entire year because of our cycle of operations. OK, so you're so you're proposed. Glad you're here. Pardon me, Shane, and sorry, thank you. Just one closing comment or question or other. So the so you're you're worried about timing. So you're exploring whether the finance committee can use it sort of limited authority. Limited authority. In principle, we can vote money out of the reserve fund at any time. However, there is. I can't remember from last year, but I think there's special language. You know, we said that this is going to be used for schools. So if it's not used for schools, can we actually take a vote and put it into the Override Stabilization Fund? So the town council has to make that decision and, you know, advise us on that. No, I mean, nobody can say that we're. Doing anything. Irregular with the town's money, we're just saving it. OK, and if that's the case, we should do it before the. You know, before the end of town meeting. If if we can't do that, then an article like this in the special town meeting will get that transfer accomplished. Prior to the end of our annual town meeting, so the money will be available to use in next year's budget. Thank you. You're welcome. Al Tassi. Why I agree the simplest way would be to just transfer the money. But we have an one article in the annual town meeting to transfer to appropriate funds in or out or transfer funds in or out of the Override Stabilization Fund. Why can't we just word the motion in the regular town meeting so town meeting transfers the money out of the reserve fund into the Override Stabilization Fund? And it's there because the town meeting isn't. Accredited or or approved until August. And at the end of June, that money is still in the reserve fund and that entire reserve fund goes into free cash. I I mean, if town meeting makes the transfer, town meeting is dissolved in May and it's in its effective in mid June and the controller would transfer the money. I would think. Oh, OK, but let's let the town council decide that, you know, I mean, I think I think the. The simplest thing would be for the finance committee just to do the transfer tomorrow morning. But if it can't, then the safe way to do it is to do it in the special town meeting. Yeah. OK, whichever. OK, any other questions? Thank you, David, for bringing that up. You're welcome. Thank you. So I would say a motion to adjourn is in order. So move. Second moved and seconded. I see everybody's hands up. Thank you very much. Have a great night. Take care.